Letters to the Editor
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19662
This article doesn’t say that penitentes appear only in the Andes, nor does it say in what part of the Andes they appear. Does the formation of penitentes require that the sun be nearly directly overhead for part of the day? Can penitentes form only near the equator? Burton LoupeeCedar Rapids, Iowa Penitentes are also […]
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19661
I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]
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19660
I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]
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19659
I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]
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19658
I did think the hairy crab was amazing, and I chuckled over the earthworm-eating and drop-down spider stories, although the “male spiders woo lifelessly” slipped right by. It wasn’t until I passed the issue on to my husband that I noticed that the heading said “No Fooling” instead of “Of Note.” So now, we have […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 25, 2006, issue of Science News
Bee movie? In the article about using harmonic reflected signals to track bees (“The Trouble with Chasing a Bee,” SN: 1/14/06, p. 23), I thought it was interesting to note that the original technology was created by the Russians as a spy device. The technology is still being used for a form of spying. Dwight […]
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19657
Unless the writer is deliberately implying an archaic theory of evolution in this article, the statement “Ultrasonic perception may have developed as the frogs (Amolops tormotus) struggled to hear each other . . .” cannot be true. That’s not how natural selection works. John WymoreAlbuquerque, N.M. Frogs that could hear frequencies higher than the water’s […]
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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. […]
