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“Jiggling the cosmic ooze” states that Leon Lederman won the Nobel prize in 1988 for “codiscovering the muon.” It is a small error, but more correctly, Lederman won the Nobel prize for codiscovering the mu neutrino. The muon was discovered in cosmic rays in 1937–1938 by researchers using cloud-chamber techniques. Peter B. Kahn
State University of New York
Stony Brook, N.Y. Congratulations on the fine article “Jiggling the cosmic ooze.” What a pity Congress didn’t have your article before it scrapped the Super Collider. Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi’s supportive effort in their interesting book, The God Particle (1993, Houghton Mifflin), was too long a read for the political tribes. Lauren Ashley Smith
Clinton, Iowa The quest for the Higgs boson is certainly a weighty matter, but it will not make a particle of difference in our search for mines in the very shallow waters encountered in amphibious landings. There are still some interesting and important problems in old-fashioned classical-continuum physics. Jim Fitzgerald
New London, Conn.