Letters to the Editor
- 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 […]
- Humans
Letters from the September 4, 2004, issue of Science News
Funny pages Horvath and Toffel’s comparison of the environmental impacts of the paper versus the electronic editions of the New York Times is a bit misleading (“Newspaper’s Footprint: Environmental toll of all the news that’s fit to print,” SN: 6/12/04, p. 374: Newspaper’s Footprint: Environmental toll of all the news that’s fit to print). A […]
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19455
It wasn’t the news of polluting runoff that caught my attention in your article, but the startling statistic that the 3 million annual increase in the U.S. population costs $480 billion in construction costs alone. That’s $160,000 dollars for each added person! John BrooksLake Shastina, Calif.
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19454
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. The problem of Earth’s curvature mentioned in the article would not seem to […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 28, 2004, issue of Science News
In spite of them? Evidently, death waits for no one, except in Belgium (“Death Waits for No One: Deferred demises take a couple of hits,” SN: 6/5/04, p. 356: Death Waits for No One: Deferred demises take a couple of hits). Around 40 years ago, Belgian doctors went on strike for 3 months. If I […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 21, 2004, issue of Science News
Complex issue When cyanobacteria and plants transfer electrons photosynthetically, light is absorbed not by their photosynthetic proteins but by chlorophylls (“Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins,” SN: 6/5/04, p. 355: Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins). Some of these proteins indeed participate in electron flow, […]
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19453
I wonder if the growth rings appearing in dinosaur bones are analogous to those of trees, which are determined by the annual climatic cycle. Is it possible that the dinosaur rings were created on a different time cycle? James HendryFlorissant, Mo. Researchers say that they haven’t come up with another type of cycle that seems […]
