Letters to the Editor
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19850
If Drs. Glass and Venter succeed in assembling a viable synthetic bacterial genome, will the genome or the new life form itself be patentable? Virgil H. SouleFrederick, Md. The team that performed this work stirred controversy when it applied for a patent on a synthetic bacterial genome in October 2006. The patent hasn’t yet been […]
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19849
With respect to this article on kimberlites, diamonds, and mantle fractures, may I suggest that the fractures in question emanate from hypervelocity bolide impacts on Earth. There is ample spatial correlation between impact craters formed by oblique impacts with crustal-fracture systems that propagated outward along the direction of impact. Gregory C. HermanNew Jersey Geological SurveyTrenton, […]
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19848
Your review of Alex Vilenkin’s book Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes, above, contained an often-made error. In Guth’s inflation model, during the first “zillionth of a second,” the universe did not inflate “to cosmic scale.” It inflated to about the size of a large grapefruit. Then it began its slow expansion. […]
- Humans
Letters from the June 30, 2007, issue of Science News
Hot and cold on the topic No mention was made in “In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life” (SN: 4/28/07, p. 259) of the possibility that, being so close to its star and having a 13-day orbital period, the planet would keep the same surface to the star. Having one side baked […]
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19847
In this article, the unusual head positions seem to indicate that these creatures died from a kind of nerve damage. One of the possibilities is oxygen deprivation. Doesn’t this suggest that most of these creatures probably died from suffocation after a sudden mud slide or other deluge? Ron McMurtryModesto, Calif. Suffocation from a mud slide, […]
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19846
This article describes attaching a drug molecule to a molecule from the rabies virus that enables the drug to cross the blood-brain barrier. This suggests a possible danger if the ability to produce the molecule could be transferred to the genomes of disease organisms in the wild. If the field of genetic engineering for drug […]
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19845
In this article, the study is reported as the “first confirmed acoustic example of classic defensive mimicry.” Not so. In 1986, Matthew P. Rowe and colleagues published in Ethology an elegant study demonstrating that the burrowing owl’s hiss is acoustic defensive mimicry of the rattlesnake’s rattle. William K. HayesLoma Linda UniversityLoma Linda, Calif.
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19844
Your article reports 86 heart attacks among 15,560 rosiglitazone (Avandia) users, versus 72 others in a control group of 12,283. A study coauthor then says that “after statistical adjustment, that yields a 43 percent higher risk of heart attacks among rosiglitazone users.” Simple arithmetic would seem to indicate it was the control group that had […]
- Humans
Letters from the June 23, 2007, issue of Science News
Bad start In “Violent Justice: Adult system fails young offenders” (SN: 4/21/07, p. 243), an association is found between young offenders being tried as adults and increased criminal offenses later. The implication is made that one thing causes the other. Perhaps a better interpretation of the data would be that, because not every young offender […]
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19843
Your article states, “Exercise, estrogen, [and more examples] all rev up production of new brain cells.” I am compelled to ask: If estrogen leads to neurogenesis, does the “male” hormone testosterone also? Jaime HunterMesquite, Texas There’s good evidence that testosterone increases neurogenesis in songbirds but little evidence that it does the same in mammals. —B. […]
- Humans
Letters from the June 16, 2007, issue of Science News
Bigger picture Reading “Pictures Posing Questions: The next steps in photography could blur reality” (SN: 4/7/07, p. 216), I was struck by the similarity between the image that used a cone-shaped mirror and the images you get from gravitational lensing. As the same data are available in both types of images, it ought to be […]
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19842
This article states, “The most likely sea route ran north of Hawaii and down America’s Pacific coast.” The Polynesians were master mariners, so anything is possible, but continuing east from Tonga to South America is an extension of the main voyaging area, whereas Hawaii is well off this beaten path. Tom MallardPhoenix, Ariz.
