Letters to the Editor
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19482
What will happen to the Huygens probe when it plunges through Titan’s atmosphere? Will we have a PHHT or a BOOM? My late father, a chemist, always admonished me to beware of acetylene, propane, and ethane, as they were highly volatile. Caroline L.C. GoldsmithHackettstown, N.J. ” There is no molecular oxygen on Titan,” responds Jonathan […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 13, 2004, issue of Science News
The direct approach “An Exploitable Mutation: Defect might make some lung cancers treatable” (SN: 9/11/04, p. 164: An Exploitable Mutation: Defect might make some lung cancers treatable) may have missed a “magic bullet” that would be effective against many forms of cancer. The researchers concentrate on a drug that blocks a mutated form of the […]
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19481
This article seems to confuse triggers with long-term contributing factors. Traffic might just cause small peaks in stress that trigger only heart attacks that would have otherwise happened days later. To recommend staying out of traffic, research would need to show that people regularly in traffic are more likely to have heart attacks or have […]
- Humans
Letters from the November 6, 2004, issue of Science News
Another view I suggest that world maps with countries colored by some statistical feature often would be more useful if done on a cartogram that is a compromise between population and size of countries, rather than on a map with a simple Mercator projection (“A Better Distorted View,” SN: 8/28/04, p. 136: A Better Distorted […]
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19480
I’m no fan of cell phones, but this seems to be an article about a solution looking for a problem. Presumably, cell phones would be disposed of in landfills and, therefore, not exactly “released” into the environment, as the article states. In any case, the 312,000 pounds of lead in all cell phones owned in […]
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19479
There is another answer to how the toxin gets on the bird’s feathers besides the birds eating the beetles. Many birds use insects to preen their feathers. Ralph GundersenSt. Cloud, Minn. “Because we do find significant toxin levels in internal organs . . . we believe that [the birds] are ingesting at least some of […]
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19478
I’m a veterinarian, and, here in west Texas, we see a high occurrence of parvovirus infection in young dogs. It destroys the intestinal villi, allowing gastrointestinal bacteria and their toxins to enter the bloodstream. I would be very interested in learning whether or not small doses of nicotine would have a beneficial effect. Tom McCabeEl […]
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19477
The researchers featured in this article suggest that a higher incidence of schizophrenia may be due to summer-related infections “or other seasonal factors.” June and July births would have been in early gestation during late fall and winter, when there is increased incidence of depression among adults. Might it be reasonable to suggest that “other […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 30, 2004, issue of Science News
It isn’t academic Speaking as someone with a Ph.D. in math who has spent most of his 30-year professional life unemployed and who can probably look forward to spending the rest of it unemployable, I was disappointed that “Where Ph.D.s pay off” in (SN: 8/7/04, p. 94: Where Ph.D.s pay off) made no apparent effort […]
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19476
I would suggest that the Italian hydrologists cited in your article consider the law of unintended consequences. Similar actions begun in 1978 at an oil field in Wyoming drove methane to the surface and resulted in a large kill zone of the dominant sagebrush Artemisia tridentata. James A. ErdmanCrestone, Colo. The researchers in Italy say […]
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19475
Along with everyone else, I’ve been fired up by the amazing discovery of Homo floresiensis. Clearly, our preconceptions about brain size and intelligence, reasonably achieved by the evidence we had, must now be discarded. Oriole Parker-RhodesAnglesey, Wales
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19474
After reading this article, I noted that nowhere in the article’s text was it stated how the hydrogen is going to be stored. Storing hydrogen safely and economically is difficult, to say the least. David E. BeesonWinona Lake, Ind.
