Letters from the June 5, 2004, issue of Science News

Blackened reputation

Again, humans are implicated in the promotion and distribution of our own misery (“Medieval cure-all may actually have spread disease,” SN: 4/3/04, p. 222: Medieval cure-all may actually have spread disease). However, if bitumen was wrongly credited with darkening the skin of mummified remains, what caused it?

Robert Fizek
Newton, Mass.