Letters to the Editor
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19656
This article states that the early universe expanded “from subatomic scales to the size of a grapefruit in less than a trillionth of a second” or one picosecond. This would correspond to a velocity many times the speed of light (light only travels about 0.012 inch in a picosecond). How can this statement be reconciled […]
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19655
I am rather surprised at all the attention the find mentioned in this article is getting. Some would think that these mammals caused the downfall of the dinosaurs, but the fossil record suggests a very different scenario. There is no evidence of possum-to-coyote–size mammals for the 70-odd million years that the dinosaurs ruled the planet. […]
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19654
Light pollution is a side effect of cheap fossil fuels. As such, we may be closer to the end of this problem than most people think. Electricity is still the best bargain in the civilized world, but blowing it off into the night sky has always been folly. When energy prices reach a high-enough level, […]
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19653
I wouldn’t allow a child of mine to receive SSRIs for treatment of depression, unless that depression were truly crippling and my child required in patient care and a 24-hour suicide watch. The marginally lower effect of talk therapy alone, while presenting half the risk of committing suicide and imposing no unknown long-term pharmacological side […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 18, 2006, issue of Science News
Comfort zones Just because living organisms were found in extreme conditions does not necessarily mean they were created in these localities (“Is Anybody out There?” SN: 1/21/06, p. 42). Another possibility is that the creation of life took place under more amenable conditions and that these organisms, through evolution, gradually adapted as the conditions changed. […]
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19652
In your article you report, “Every 4 years, each volunteer completed a questionnaire about his body weight and dietary habits.” Any dieter knows that it is next to impossible to remember what one has eaten 4 days ago. Any more details on how the data was acquired and validated? Ivan MannHoover, Ala. Volunteers were asked […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 11, 2006, issue of Science News
Seasonal effect? Might your article, “Bright Lights, Big Cancer” (SN: 1/7/06, p. 8), on breast cancer have missed something? If the daily light-dark cycle affects melatonin, is there a seasonal change in cancer rates in the Northern (and Southern) Hemispheres? If so or not, that might give a clue to any latency period. Alan MacGregorSalmon […]
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19651
In the article, the author states that the observed supernova was “one of only a handful . . . heralded by a burst of gamma rays.” Isn’t that because gamma-ray bursts from core-collapse supernovas are directional, along the axis of rotation? Was GRB 060218 “unique” because it produced a burst of gamma rays or because […]
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19650
This article remarks on maize starch granules being “consistent with” stone grinding. The presence of lowland arrowroot on one tool is consistent with trade, but it is equally consistent with a wandering hunter grabbing a root in the midlands and bringing it home. James ReichleQuincy, Calif.
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19649
This article contained a very disturbing comment: “Neurologist Annette Langer-Gould of Stanford University says that even the 1-in-1,000 risk of PML [leukemia] ‘seems to outweigh the benefits’ that natalizumab would provide many patients.” Having a genetic mutation for which there is no treatment or cure and having (and having had) friends with MS, I am […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 4, 2006, issue of Science News
Impure thoughts Epidemiologist Scott Davis warns, “Melatonin supplements are not regulated” the way drugs are. … “There may be all kinds of impurities and contaminants” (“Bright Lights, Big Cancer: Melatonin-depleted blood spurs tumor growth,” SN: 1/7/06, p. 8). Are you really going to tell me that you aren’t going to take melatonin—if you’re convinced that […]
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19648
So, researchers studying the effects of the hunger hormone ghrelin have found that hungry mice do better on tests of learning and memory. Four hundred years ago, William Shakespeare had Julius Caesar say, in Act I, Scene II, “Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights. […]
