Letters to the Editor
-
19751
As a computer scientist, I appreciate that increased layers of hidden complexity only increase vulnerability to both innocent error and fraudulent manipulation. As a voter, I thoroughly understand how to indelibly mark a paper ballot. The ballot can be machine read and tabulated even before I leave the precinct. It is as nearly perfect a […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 4, 2006, issue of Science News
Twisted logic? I have a question concerning “The Sun’s Halo in 3-D” (SN: 8/19/06, p. 120). It says, “As the sun rotates, its polar regions make a complete circle in about 34 days, compared with the 25 days required by its equator.” I was wondering how it’s possible to have two points on a rotating […]
-
19750
This article indicates both the stability of such natural products and their bioaccumulation in organisms at the top of the food chain. It is no doubt prudent that human activity—i.e., chemical manufacturing—should not increase the quantity of these chemicals in the oceans. But it should be recalled that banning of PCBs and similar substances was […]
-
19749
This article made me wonder how long a gas planet is expected to survive when one of its faces is more than 1,000°C. The conventional model of our solar system assumes that gas planets can form and survive only in a cold region of space. This implies that Upsilon Andromedae b moved to its present […]
-
19748
I am amazed that this article concluded that “Scientists have a long way to go to explain why” prey animals play dead. As a veterinarian, I have learned that there are separate centers in the brain dealing with predatory behavior and with hunger. The effect seems to be that predatory behavior, by itself, is satisfying, […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 28, 2006, issue of Science News
Slow down a minute “Braking news: Disks slow down stars” (SN: 8/12/06, p. 109) says that a magnetic linkage between spinning stars and the charged particles in the dusty disks that surround them slowed the spin of the stars, but says nothing about its effect on the disk. The law of conservation of angular momentum […]
-
19747
This article states, “Several billion years from now, scientists predict, the galaxy and the Milky Way will collide. . . .” How can galactic collisions occur in an expanding universe, where galaxies should be moving away from each other? James HendryFlorissant, Mo. On the large scale, objects are indeed receding from each other. But locally, […]
-
19746
I am a retired high school mathematics teacher who has quilted mathematical ideas for over 20 years. Currently, I am working on a quilt called Pascal’s Pumpkin. I was totally excited by this article and began to think about quilting some spidrons! Elaine EllisonWest Lafayette, Ind.
-
19745
The research showing that experimental animals receiving both antibiotics and stomach-acid suppressants colonized large numbers of drug-resistant intestinal bacteria might be important to preventing drug-resistant Clostridium difficile. Reviewing patients’ records to see whether those who developed the disease were more frequently prescribed antibiotics and stomach-acid blockers at the same time might be helpful in preventing […]
-
19744
An entire scientific community could be wrong about something, be expected to know that they are wrong, and for nearly inexplicable reasons persist in being wrong. This happened when the medical establishment embraced Freudian psychology as an explanation of human behavior. In spite of extensive training in the biological and chemical sciences, medical practitioners of […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 21, 2006, issue of Science News
Fish story? To argue that the concentrations reported in “Macho Moms: Perchlorate pollutant masculinizes fish” (SN: 8/12/06, p. 99) are environmentally relevant is misleading. Those concentrations are usually in groundwater, not surface waters. I’ve been involved in the environmental field for almost 20 years and have yet to hear of any fish being caught in […]
-
19743
It is ironic that the father of the current recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry won the prize in medicine. Looking at the research of 2006 winner Roger D. Kornberg, his prize should have been awarded in medicine. For his father, Arthur Kornberg, the prize in 1959 should have been in chemistry. The good […]
