Dallas also says, "Do I believe that my ancestors were paramecium [sic] or that God created man in His own image about 10,000 years ago? I choose the latter." Dallas's first option is not open. Paramecia have a different genetic code from humans, so they cannot be our ancestors (F. Caron, E. Meyer, Nature, 314:185-8, 1985). He is left with his "10,000 years ago" choice. Thomas H. Jukes Space Sciences Lab University of California Berkeley, Calif. 94720 (The Scientist, Vol:9, #13, pg.11, June

Perhaps it should be added that the American Institute of Nutrition (AIN), alone among societies that are members of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), has a Committee on the History of Nutrition, and also has published a two-volume, 1,162-page compilation of the biographies of 128 Founders of Nutrition Science, retrieved from their publication in the Journal of Nutrition over the past 62 years.

PBS show on Rachel Carson and Silent Spring would include "interviews with foes and friends." The interviews with "foes" were with only one person: myself. The only other opponent was Professor Robert White-Stevens of Rutgers University, who died several years ago and thus, for obvious reasons, was not interviewed. Instead, two or three selected film clips were shown, to represent him as a spokesman for the pesticide industry. Several "friends" came on camera for a total of about 30 times, plus

It is easy to think up reasons for not searching for extraterrestrial signals (Scott Veggeberg, The Scientist, July 6, 1992, page 5). Christopher Columbus probably heard most of them. One is the budgetary illusion that if the money is not spent on the search, it will benefit the objectors' pet project, instead of disappearing into some general fund. Another objection, expressed by Robert Park in the article, is that there is no extraterrestrial life in the solar system, so we shouldn't look for

Date: January 20, 1992 Forrest Mims III (The Scientist, Oct. 28, 1991, page 12) responds to the three questions I posed in my letter in the July 22 issue of The Scientist [page 12]. The first concerned the creationist claim that animals were drowned by the Great Flood, and the fossilized bones of the best swimmers are in the top layers. The book Scientific Creationism (San Diego, Creation Life Publishers, 1974, pages 118-20) states that fossils of "mammals and birds would be found in general at

In its April 29, 1991, issue [page 12], The Scientist has published eight letters of comment on the debate between Forrest Mims and Arthur Caplan, which was featured in the Opinion section of the Feb. 18, 1991, issue of The Scientist [page 11]. Missing from these letters and from the debate is a description of creation "science," which, contradicting evolution, is the view that represents the standpoint of creationists. Creationists allege that creation ex nihilo took place 8,000 to 10,000 yea

Fleecing The Public Your account of Sen. William Proxmire’s “Golden Fleece” awards (The Scientist, December 12, 1988, page 17) may be supplemented with the history of his success in obstructing regulation of vitamin products in 1974. The Food and Drug Administration proposed to set an upper limit of 150% of Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) per tablet for the over-the-counter vitamin products. There was no restriction on taking several tablets per day, which actu ally is a

It sounded like an experiment that was all a molecular biologist could hope for. It had a noble purpose (the protection of nutritionally important fruits and vegetables), it was of great scientific elegance and theoretical interest, and it was perfectly safe. It went like this. Take a common saprophytic bacterium, present in food, water and soil, and remove one of its 200-odd genes. Grow the organism in pure culture, spread it on plants that are harboring the wild type, and PRESTO! the massive