Letters to the Editor
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19395
This article was an eye-opener. Our courts may be accepting many analytical techniques that haven’t been adequately validated. We should be careful, especially where the death penalty is involved, not to be guilty of hubris in the application of scientific knowledge. Bob SauerPrinceton, Mass.
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19394
This article suggests that pregnant rattlesnakes might give their offspring a better chance of survival if they congregated for birth. If that were true, one might expect that there would also be a convergence of birth times. While doing research over 25 years ago, we had five of six pregnant rattlesnakes caged together all give […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 20, 2004, issue of Science News
What’s the difference? I thought that the X and Y chromosomes determined gender in animals, but I see no mention of them in “When to Change Sex” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 40: When to Change Sex). Does this mean that on a genetic basis, males and females in these organisms are identical? Neil H. MurphyWalnut Creek, […]
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19393
The word love needs to be more carefully defined in the study described in this article. Love may also mean finding the economic resources to give a child a better future. Wolf’s description of Taiwanese mothers giving their children away when “socially acceptable alternatives” were available is reminiscent of our society’s advice to young unwed […]
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19392
Your article describes how the male bean weevil’s spiked reproductive part damages the female’s reproductive tract to reduce the chance that she will mate with other males. Could this also explain the barbs on the organ of the domesticated tom cat? I have read that the pain of copulation induces the female’s ovulation, but I […]
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19391
The article about tuberculosis states that Robert Koch in 1882 was the first person to link a particular microbe to a disease. References indicate that Armauer Hansen demonstrated in 1868 that Mycobacterium leprae was associated with the tissues of leprosy patients. He may not have had Koch’s postulates to prove this linkage, but many credit […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 13, 2004, issue of Science News
Dry hole? “Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 46: Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen) seems to be delivering good news for the environment: “Clean” hydrogen can be produced from water using solar energy. This seems to me, however, to be even more horrifying than the burning of […]
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19390
I believe a reader rushed to judgment regarding the environmental impact of splitting water to produce hydrogen for fuel (“Letters: Dry Hole?” above). The split water isn’t ultimately consumed, only recycled. Burning hydrogen reunites it with oxygen, returning water to the environment. Much more intriguing questions might concern the human-accelerated migration of water from liquid […]
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19389
There are added benefits to methotrexate and etanercept for rheumatoid arthritis patients, such as myself. After a recent major flare-up, my rheumatologist put me on that therapy. Many people don’t realize that along with inflammation and pain, arthritis also brings major fatigue and lack of sleep because of pain. I feel much better now, and […]
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19388
I can think of a place other than the moon where NASA could develop a closed life-support system for staging rehearsals of manned Mars exploration. Why not Earth? Advantages would include a protective atmosphere, a day length closer to the Martian sol, bone-and-muscle-friendly gravity, and easy access to mechanical and medical resources. The cost would […]
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19387
Your article quotes a pediatrician as saying, “we’re moving to selection on the basis of a trait that is of no benefit to the child to be born.” I disagree. The child to be born would have the benefit of a healthy older sibling. Even saving the parents from the trauma of a dying child […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 6, 2004, issue of Science News
All we have to fear In “9/11’s Fatal Road Toll: Terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 37: 9/11’s Fatal Road Toll: Terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths), it was assumed that people who switched from planes to cars after the terrorist attacks did so because of fear. However, […]
