Letters to the Editor
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19760
This article explained how research was being done to find a way to get rid of head lice without the use of harsh chemicals. While the method mentioned might work, I found a much lower-tech approach. I tried a multitude of things to get rid of these vermin when my daughter was infested, and the […]
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19759
A better simulation of jet lag than that described in this article would have been to shift daytime forward 1 week, then back the next, and continue alternating for the 8 weeks of the experiment. This would mimic actual travel, rather than simulating endless trips around Earth in one direction. Dian Duchin ReedSoquel, Calif.
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19758
It is not only the scientific literature that documents the unexpected “doughnut” pattern in swarms. Italo Calvino’s fictional Mr. Palomar observed (rather more lyrically) about the flocking of Roman starlings, “Finally a form emerges from the confused flutter of wings, advances, condenses: it is a circular shape, like a sphere, a bubble, the balloon-speech of […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 25, 2006, issue of Science News
Wasted youth The experiments with mice infected with the 1918 influenza virus are important but not surprising (“The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients,” SN: 9/30/06, p. 211). John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (2004, Viking) explains that many, perhaps most, of the victims were […]
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19757
Concerning this article, I have yet to read a single study regarding the alleged benefits of circumcision that acknowledges that the foreskin is erogenous tissue. Removal of erogenous tissue from a female would be considered barbaric, even if it did offer some protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Jerry MalonePueblo, Colo. This is surgery, which should […]
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19756
It would seem difficult to distinguish between the repulsive force that dark energy proposes and the regular gravitational pull of ordinary matter. Somehow, the idea of multiple universes surrounding our universe, embodying the known laws of physics and providing the gravitational pull, is easier for me to accept than a mysterious dark energy nobody can […]
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19755
In this article on rogue waves, you make no mention of the use of satellite data, which is ideal for this sort of study. Two projects, in particular, are of great relevance: the European Union’s MaxWave study and the subsequent WaveAtlas project. The former, with just 3 weeks’ data, identified 10 rogue waves above 25 […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 18, 2006, issue of Science News
Sunny side heads up “Rare Uranian eclipse” (SN: 9/9/06, p. 166) tells us, “Because the moons of Uranus orbit at the planet’s equator, the sun seldom illuminates them directly.” I think what you mean is that the moons seldom pass directly between Uranus and the sun. But surely the sun still illuminates them, even when […]
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19754
The idea of Pleistocene rewilding in North America is provocative, but it need not be treated only in the abstract. The return of beavers (Castor canadensis) to almost every region of the continent has shown us that the behavior of these creatures was, in many ways, originally responsible for the contours of the landscape and […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 11, 2006, issue of Science News
The Carolinas to New Jersey “Bad-News Beauties: Poison-spined fish from Asia have invaded U.S. waters” (SN: 9/9/06, p. 168) cites evidence of a severe genetic bottleneck, suggesting that perhaps no more than three pregnant females launched the expanding western Atlantic red lionfish population. How can there be “pregnant females” in an animal with the external […]
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19753
This article reminds me that in preantibiotic days, tuberculosis patients were put on a fresh-air-and-sunshine regimen. Could the vitamin D so acquired account for the cures this system sometimes produced? Nancy AxfordSacramento, Calif. Researcher John J. Cannell points to TB sanitariums as anecdotal evidence that sunlight fights infections. —J. Raloff Does the vitamin D in […]
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19752
One solution to global warming suggested in the article is stretching Mylar across the ground. How about designing reflective concrete to aid in this endeavor? We are already covering a large amount of Earth with pavement. Tom E. KlassenIndianapolis, Ind.
