Letters to the Editor
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19622
I’m pleased that images are now available to prove that self-control over pain works. Actually, I and many other moms could have helped the researchers. During childbirth, we simply focused on various breathing techniques and discovered that the pain became manageable or disappeared. I’ve continued to use these breathing techniques in the dentist’s chair for […]
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19621
This article raises the question of how oxygen levels have changed over the past 2 centuries, when carbon dioxide has been increasing. John MillsDecatur, Ala. There is a problem in this interesting article. The graph of oxygen content versus time doesn’t agree with the text. Specific example: “About 255 million years ago … the oxygen […]
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19620
While it is extraordinary that an unprotected insect larva survives gut passage, it is not the first demonstration that insects may be carried inside of birds. The larvae of phytophagous wasps living inside the seeds of the multiflora rose pass unharmed through the guts of mockingbirds. C.A. NalepaRaleigh, N.C.
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Gerald F. Tape (1915–2005)
Gerald Tape, who served on the Science Service Board of Trustees for more than 30 years, died Nov. 20.
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Letters from the December 10, 2005, issue of Science News
Big Bang bashing The recent discovery of “mature” galaxies at distances corresponding to the remote cosmic past (“Crisis in the Cosmos? Galaxy formation theory is in peril,” SN: 10/8/05, p. 235) threatens more than galaxy-formation theory. It threatens to shatter the increasingly fragile Big Bang paradigm by showing that the composition of the cosmos is […]
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19619
The lack of the linguistic device “recursion” in the Pirahã language might be more subtle than investigator Dan Everett suspects. I’ve heard examples of the sentence given as recursion—”When I finish eating, I want to speak to you”—rendered as a run-on sentence by speakers new to English and by lifelong speakers as well: “I finish […]
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Letters from the December 3, 2005, issue of Science News
Eye on energy “Cosmic Ray Font: Supernova remnants rev up ions” (SN: 10/1/05, p. 213) is unfortunately murky. It’s confusing to state that accelerating charged particles to high speeds “therefore” produces cosmic rays. And what “charged particles”? Is the “energized” gas in fact “ionized”? “Energized” is too general a word. Finally, why are high-speed particles […]
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19618
The evidence at best is fuzzy for bee recognition of faces. Both sugar water and quinine have unique odors that are probably readily recognizable by bees. And what do the feeders look like in the bee spectral range? Jacques M. DulinSequim, Wash. For the test of bees’ face recognition, the researchers used empty, identical feeders […]
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19617
Regarding the findings in this article, would it be possible for an antibiotic to be included with the RU-486 package to prevent a Clostridium sordellii infection? Like millions of other people, I have to take an antibiotic prior to dental procedures to prevent the very rare possibility of an infection in my heart, and it […]
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19616
First, thanks for a great article. I did note a few overgeneralizations. The most important, from a beer drinker’s perspective, would be this quote from Raymond J. Klimovitz of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas: “The fresher the beer, the better it’s going to be.” While this is generally true for lighter, mainstream beers, […]
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Letters from the November 26, 2005, issue of Science News
Roads to ruin? Chloride concentration in streams should be a concern to everyone. However, projecting problems at century’s end based on the present rate of chloride increase is bad science (“Steep Degrade Ahead: Road salt threatens waters in Northeast,” SN: 9/24/05, p. 195). Salt use in some New England areas has roughly doubled in the […]
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19615
This article says that “twice as many … with sleep apnea had a stroke or died of that or another cause. …” This sounds serious, but your readers can’t correctly assign importance to “twice as many” because you omit numbers of deaths. David KollasTolland, Conn. Among the 697 people with sleep apnea, 22 suffered strokes […]
