Letters to the Editor
- 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 […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 14, 2004, issue of Science News
It’s a groove thing I don’t want to downplay genuine discovery, but your story about optically reading old records left me a little underwhelmed (“Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings,” SN: 5/29/04, p. 339: Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings). The optical playing of records has been […]
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19452
Having just read “To Err Is Human,” I want to add some comments. I led men in combat in World War II when we overran several concentration camps. My men held their anger, and not one went below the line to become an animal just because the other guy had. I’d like to point out […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 7, 2004, issue of Science News
Pot shots Regarding “Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier” (SN: 5/22/04, p. 323: Pot on the Spot: Marijuana’s risks become blurrier), it seems to me that the stronger the social pressure against using marijuana in a culture, the more likely it will be that those who use it will be troubled, antisocial, or […]
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19451
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 this article made no apparent effort to find points of view other than the researchers’. Allan AdlerNew York, N.Y. People […]
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19450
This is the most amazing paleontological article I think I have ever read. You state calmly that these “Canadian fossils are the oldest known examples of large, multicellular creatures” and that this type of creature “doesn’t appear to be related to any organisms that have lived since.” Would you please follow up on this discovery […]
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19449
Your article says that sunspots are 3,500°C. Yet further in the article, it says that the solar flare of Nov. 4, 2003, was 41 million°C. Is that a typographical error? Bruce BarnbaumGranite Falls, Wash. That’s no typo. The release of magnetic energy in the sun’s atmosphere during a flare heats the material that’s been ejected […]
