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Considering the controversy that Thomas Gold engendered when he first postulated abiogenic origins of earthly hydrocarbons, it’s odd you didn’t mention his name in your article.

Edgar T. Lynk
Niskayuna, N.Y.

Although Gold, author of The Deep Hot Biosphere (1998, Copernicus), was a strong proponent of a nonbiological origin of hydrocarbons, he was not the first to propose the idea. Dmitri Mendeleev, inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements, put forth the idea in 1877, and many Russian scientists advocated a similar theory throughout the 20th century .—A. Goho