Letters to the Editor

19296

The political pseudoscience press strikes again. Now, we are told that by 2050, as many as 31 percent of species will be wiped out by a temperature increase of 0.8 to 1.7°C. I find this impossible to believe, in that these organisms are all presently surviving with diurnal, seasonal, yearly, and cyclical average-temperature fluctuations that […]

19373

Once again, we see evidence that supports what we knew all along. As my mother told me growing up, “Just sleep on it.” David VarnerPortland, Ore.

19372

John Harris is quoted as saying that the absence of opossums is a “curious exception” to the list of current mammals of the Los Angeles Basin preserved in the La Brea tar pits. But the presence of opossums on the West Coast is well documented to be very recent. All current California opossums derive entirely […]

19371

One of your sources in this article claims, “After all, even the sacred first law’s conservation of energy breaks down in the quantum realm, albeit in a limited way, he notes. That’s because Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle allows energy momentarily to appear from nothing, although it must be quickly paid back.” This claim is heard occasionally, […]

19295

In this article, it was assumed that people who switched from planes to cars after the terrorist attacks did so because of fear. However, many people who switched probably did so because of the inconvenience of added airport security. But before these extra deaths can be blamed on fear, security, or something else, it is […]

19294

This article 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 fossil fuels, which I believe we will be able to survive quite well without, once we consume them all. Will […]

19293

I’m sure the new therapies, including drug therapy, outlined in this article will greatly help many people. I was unhappy, however, to see that the drug D-cycloserine was going to be used to help people overcome their fear of public speaking. I had a great fear of public speaking, but 1 year in the club […]

19292

I thought that the X and Y chromosomes determined gender in animals, but I see no mention of them in your article. Does this mean that on a genetic basis, males and females in these organisms are identical? Neil H. MurphyWalnut Creek, Calif. In a sense, yes, says Philip Hastings of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute […]

19370

The contrast between the first and last sentences of your article is puzzling. The introduction states that the experimental drug “causes minimal side effects.” The piece ends with an observation, “Seven percent of volunteers died” and specifies drug-related complications as the cause. This would hardly qualify as a minimal side effect and should certainly discourage […]

19369

Your article gives American beef eaters a false sense of security. Yes, only 1 cow out of the 20,000 tested has been discovered to have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). However, over 35 million cows were slaughtered in the United States last year, meaning that only 0.06 percent of all cows slaughtered were tested for BSE. […]

19365

I do not know about the rest of your readers, but I do “hear” at least some low frequency sounds, but not with my ears. The nerves in my feet feel these vibrations and my brain parses the sounds to my flight-or-fright processor before I can process any conscious perception. Ray BryanSt. Paul, Minn.

19360

In the arts, we say that material, such as paper, that deteriorates readily because of its composition has “internal vice.” I suppose that could be said of newspapers on several grounds. Lawrence Wallin Santa Barbara, Calif.