The NASA researchers baffled by the hexagonal shape in Saturn’s soupy atmosphere at its northern pole (“A hexagon on the ringed planet,” SN: 4/28/07, p. 269) should read “As waters part, polygons appear” (SN: 6/3/06, p. 348). It is worth investigating whether there is a similar phenomenon—I still suspect some sort of standing sine wave effect—at work in both cases.
Ellery Frahm Minneapolis, Minn.
Snore and more
I was surprised that the findings on the brain’s processing of information and discerning of relationships would come as a surprise (“Sleep on It: Time delay plus slumber equals memory boost,” SN: 4/28/07, p. 260). I have long been aware of, and have even come to count on, the fact that a surprising degree of insight and clarity often comes in the morning after having fallen asleep the night before wrestling with a complex mathematics or physics problem. I am certain that many, if not most, mathematicians, physicists, and others dealing with difficult problems are equally aware of this phenomenon.
