Letters to the Editor
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19630
The conclusion drawn by pediatrician Julie C. Lumeng in this article is that parents’ safety concerns lead to kids being cooped up indoors where the opportunity for exercise is limited and food is easily accessible. While the study apparently shows a correlation between parental fears and overweight children, correlation does not equal causation. I would […]
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19629
The picture of the new cochlear implant in this article shows a square piece that is to be implanted deeply into the inner ear. “Square peg in a round hole” was my response. Why doesn’t the probe have a more rounded shape? Yvonne LyerlaSonoma, Calif. Only the slender shaft attached to the square piece goes […]
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19628
In this article about using harmonic reflected signals to track bees, 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 ElveySanta Cruz, Calif.
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19627
Epidemiologist Scott Davis warns, “Melatonin supplements are not regulated” the way drugs are. . . . “There may be all kinds of impurities and contaminants.” Are you really going to tell me that you aren’t going to take melatonin—if you’re convinced that it might lower your chance of getting cancer by as much as 50 […]
- Humans
Letters from the January 7, 2006, issue of Science News
Death in the Americas I was wondering if researchers have given any thought to the idea that in the same way that disease devastated human populations after the European discovery of the Americas, perhaps disease was a contributing factor in the demise of much of the fauna of the Western Hemisphere (“Caribbean Extinctions: Climate change […]
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19626
It seems to me irresponsible even to float the idea, as neurologist David M. Holtzman does in this article, of chemically suppressing idle thought and daydreaming in people. Who can claim a basis for clinical discrimination of “bad” idle thought and daydreaming from the “idle thought” of intuitive problem solving and poetic imagination? More of […]
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19625
This article brought a strange conundrum to mind. If Paleolithic man was in Australia 40,000 years ago, why were the aboriginal people still living in the Stone Age when the first Europeans arrived? There were advanced cultures in the Americas by 100 B.C.E., whose ancestors had arrived by 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. Norbert EdwardsBuffalo, […]
- Humans
Letters from the December 24 & 31, 2005, issue of Science News
Bends, the truth I very much enjoyed “Cool Birds” (SN: 10/22/05, p. 266). What struck me, however, was a passage that mentioned the “bird’s resistance to the bends” and the researchers’ alleged inability to explain that. As a scuba diver, I know that the bends, or decompression sickness, is caused by breathing compressed air underwater. […]
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19624
Presumably, you were attempting to be funny in this article, but the bias was too obvious, straight out of the anti–intelligent design talking points. Instead of ridicule, could we get a spirited exchange from the best minds on both sides? David F. CoppedgeNewhall, Calif. While I’m extremely skeptical of the claims that some intelligent design […]
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19623
This fine piece about invasive sea squirts states that the critters maintain an unappetizing surface pH of 2. Does this make these mats harmful to touch? Andrew J. DolsonRichmond, Va. Robert Whitlatch of the University of Connecticut, who grows Didemnum in the lab, says it’s fine to handle for short periods of time, “though I […]
- Humans
Letters from the December 17, 2005, issue of Science News
C plus Ewan Cameron, who in 1971 began to collaborate with Linus Pauling on vitamin C and cancer, typically initiated patients with 10 grams per day of vitamin C given intravenously for about 2 weeks, followed by an oral dosage continued indefinitely. The two Mayo Clinic trials referred to in “Vitamin C may treat cancer […]
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19622
I’m pleased that images are now available to prove that self-control over pain works. Actually, I and many other moms could have helped the researchers. During childbirth, we simply focused on various breathing techniques and discovered that the pain became manageable or disappeared. I’ve continued to use these breathing techniques in the dentist’s chair for […]
