Letters to the Editor
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19464
I was pleased to read that one of the most mathematically pretty sphere-stacking arrangements (the lovely 24-cell) occurs in four dimensions. The nice thing about four dimensions is that, by letting time be one dimension and using a good three-dimensional computer-graphics package, the arrangement can be viewed on a computer. Dan RyanPhiladelphia, Pa.
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19463
Surely, you mean ale. Beer, in this country at least, is a hopped drink. Evidence of ale brewing is what Robin Birley found at Vindolanda. Beer didn’t appear in England until the late Middle Ages. Ron WilcoxBath, England
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19462
Considering the controversy that Thomas Gold engendered when he first postulated abiogenic origins of earthly hydrocarbons, it’s odd you didn’t mention his name in your article. Edgar T. LynkNiskayuna, N.Y. Although Gold, author of The Deep Hot Biosphere (1998, Copernicus), was a strong proponent of a nonbiological origin of hydrocarbons, he was not the first […]
- Humans
Letters from the September 25, 2004, issue of Science News
More of less is more The counterintuitive finding that atrazine is more likely to kill tadpoles when it is highly diluted (“Just a Tad Is Too Much: Less is worse for tadpoles exposed to chemicals,” SN: 7/10/04, p. 20: Just a Tad Is Too Much: Less is worse for tadpoles exposed to chemicals) reminds me […]
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19461
Far from being a pathology, the eye cast noted in this article is exactly what one would expect for a right-eye-dominant artist. A dominant eye would see itself directly in a mirror but would observe the other eye looking at an angle away from the median. Before concluding that Rembrandt had an anomalous visual condition, […]
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19460
Astronomers and physicists seem to speak of black holes as though they took matter completely out of the universe. An evaporating black hole would not fizz away into nothingness. It would lose energy and reappear in normal space as a very dense object (complete with information). Someone might consider this when discussing quasars. Nancy ParkerCaldwell, […]
- Humans
Letters from the September 18, 2004, issue of Science News
A Pauling oversight I was surprised to find no mention of Linus Pauling’s theory of anesthesia in “Comfortably Numb” (SN: 7/3/04, p. 8: Comfortably Numb). In 1961, Pauling provided detailed arguments that interactions between anesthetic agents and water, rather than lipids, form hydrate microcrystals in the brain that entrap side chains of proteins and interfere […]
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19459
There is an error in this article. These Cassini results are based on thermal-infrared, not near-infrared data. The measurements were taken by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer and covered the spectral range from 100 to 450 inverse centimeters (100 to 22 micrometers). John PearlGreenbelt, Md. The Cassini craft also looks at near-infrared wavelengths, but not in […]
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19458
This article 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 epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, which may benefit 5 percent of lung cancer patients. Yet the article states that “if normal cell growth runs amok, […]
- Humans
Letters from the September 11, 2004, issue of Science News
Say what? I don’t think anyone should be surprised that squirrels have figured out how to say “nyah, nyah” to rattlesnakes (“Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels,” SN: 7/3/04, p. 14: Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels). After all, it’s what they’ve been saying to cats, dogs, and bird-feeder owning humans for years. R. Kelly WagnerAustin, Texas […]
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19457
I am wondering why the subject of genetically modified crops didn’t enter the discussion of diminishing plant diversity in this article. When genes from bacteria, insects, and other totally unrelated organisms are inserted into the genome of a plant, we have no idea what effect this will have on plant diversity and survival. The effect […]
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19456
Your readers should be aware that the increased fatal cancer risk posed by annual whole-body CT scans, although still quite high, is in fact almost five times lower than that stated in this article, which says that annual scans from age 45 to 75 would increase a person’s lifetime risk of dying from cancer by […]
