Letters to the Editor
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19926
This article was wonderful. We have had light and electron microscopes. Can we look forward to atom-wave microscopes? Bill SchindeleThousand Oaks, Calif. Yes. A team led by Bodil Holst at Graz University of Technology in Austria has built a microscope that bombards a sample with helium waves and then measures how the waves reflect to […]
- Humans
Letters from the February 16, 2008, issue of Science News
Inert placebo? Regarding “Getting the Red Out” (SN: 1/19/08, p. 35): While drug companies wish to market their products, my attention is drawn to the fact that 1 in 8 of the control group of psoriasis patients was cured by placebo effect. Who will investigate the process therein? Is there a market for it? Carson […]
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19925
No way do I understand where the percent changes come from. A change from $80,192 million to $80,494 million is listed as a 1.6 percent decrease. David AdamsGarnet Valley, Pa. The numbers are adjusted for inflation, which will erode buying power by the time fiscal year 2009 begins. At the time we wrote the story, […]
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19924
A familiar side effect of marijuana smoking is increased appetite, often for sweet foods. It is doubtful that the marijuana smokers immediately rush to brush their teeth after eating “munchies.” If they smoke multiple times throughout a day, they may be constantly nibbling on sweets, leaving food lodged between teeth and gums, a fairly direct […]
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19923
I have heard that whales evolved millions of years ago into their present form, including their very large brains. We humans must be relatively recent in terms of our brain structures. Are there data concerning evolutionary development in whales? Matthew KabriskyDayton, Ohio “Learning to Listen: How some vertebrates evolved biological sonar” (SN: 5/14/05, p. 314) […]
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19922
Your article suggests that growth of new brain cells, along with increasing connections, may mediate some of the effect of some SSRIs. Since these new cells would likely persist significantly longer than the drugs themselves, do we see a “cure” after some period of time and, therefore, no need for continued administration of these drugs? […]
- Humans
Letters from the February 9, 2008, issue of Science News
Small, or just invisible? “Heavy Find: Weighty neutron stars may rule out exotic core” (SN: 1/12/08, p. 20) says that the companion star of the pulsar PSR B1516+02B must be “tiny” because it cannot be seen. Isn’t it possible that the companion is made of dark matter? Is there a “wobble” test or other way […]
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19921
I was intrigued by this article. It states: “The interaction of gravity, matter, and radiation in the early universe set up acoustic oscillations, cosmic sound waves that left their imprints on the distribution of galaxies across the sky.” Spanish poet Antonio Machado [1875–1939] put a similar mode of thinking into a poem dealing with dreams. […]
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19920
There is already a Web site that also aims to answer “What’s in my backyard?” At ZipcodeZoo.com, David Stang has assembled close to 3 million pages of information (one species per page) based on more than 37 million field observations that include latitude and longitude. Taxonomic information is provided, and there are more than 250,000 […]
- Humans
Letters from the February 2, 2008, issue of Science News
Eye for an eagle The photo illustrating “Hatch a Thief” (SN: 12/15/07, p. 372) does not show a golden eagle. The bill of a golden eagle is black on the outer half and pale blue at the base, and the feathers on the back of its head are bright tawny. It could be a white-tailed […]
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19919
We must dissociate the attacks themselves from the intense media barrage that followed. Under the guise of providing information, the press seemed intent on inflaming our most negative feelings of fear, hatred, and grief. While the attacks were no doubt emotionally distressing, the psychological trauma was amplified a thousandfold by the nonstop and repetitive coverage. […]
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19918
This article keeps the reader on track with accurate, entertaining metaphors. It ends with a riveting observation from the White Mountains of New Hampshire: The tree line occurs where windchill temperatures reach 220 kelvins, the temperature at which supercooled water “undergoes a phase transition.” Windchill temperatures are not physical temperatures—neither the trees nor the air […]
