19441

This otherwise well-written and fascinating article contains an error. You write, “Because magnesium is more strongly attracted to oxygen than to silicon, magnesium atoms elbow out the silicon . . . .” The correct statement would be, “Because magnesium is more strongly attracted to oxygen than silicon is attracted to oxygen, magnesium atoms elbow out the silicon . . . .”

Fred Kohler
Ashland, Ore.

Either sentence is correct, but Mr. Kohler’s is probably better. Both silicon and magnesium are competing for oxygen, and the goal of the researchers is to produce magnesium oxide .—A. Goho