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the year in re-review
jan/feb ;;;;
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Give NASA Its Due
Entrepreneur Robert Bigelow,
whose company is designing
space taxis and hotels, shared
his vision of the future of private spaceflight in story #73 of
our Year in Science 2010 issue.
;e Robert Bigelow interview
left me disappointed; he and
;;;;;;;; were blatantly
belittling the success of the
U.S. space program. I found
Bigelow’s assumption that the
Constellation program was
compensation for the Columbia disaster insulting. Not
only does it degrade the noble
deaths of the astronauts on
the mission, but it also ignores
the progress astronauts and
engineers were making on
translating Constellation into
a reality. As the daughter of
an astronaut who has seen
her mother dedicate her life
to the space program, I think
that Bigelow is trivializing
the work and passion of ;;;;
employees, without which he
would not even have the technology to build his designer
spacecraft.
Meredith Baker
;;;;;;;;;, ;;
Parental Bias?
A study in the journal Pediat-
rics, described in “Same-Sex
Parents Do No Harm” (#88),
demonstrated that adolescent
children of lesbian mothers
experience healthy psychologi-
cal development.
I have no issue with what
Nanette Gartrell is research-
ing, but I do question her
methods. Her study relied on
questionnaires that asked
parents how they thought
their kids were adjusting to
life. I don’t believe you can
get real results from just
asking what a parent thinks
of her child.
Eric Knode
;;;;;;, ;;
Psychiatrist Nanette Gartrell
replies:
It is unlikely that parental bias
played a role in our ;ndings
because they are based on
a standardized behavioral
checklist completed by both
lesbian and heterosexual
mothers. ;e checklist is set
up so that a parent is not able
to ;gure out which behaviors
indicate competencies and
which indicate problems. We
also conducted interviews
with and administered
questionnaires to the lesbian
mothers’ o;spring.
BP Spill in Perspective
DISCOVER’s #1 story of 2010,
“4.4 Million Barrels Later,” dissected the environmental and
energy policy impacts of last
spring’s 86-day oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico.
Your article says that oil
spilled at the rate of ;;,;;;
barrels per day. If that catastrophic rate had continued
for a full year, it would have
totaled the consumption of
oil by the United States in
only one day!
Tony Fricke
;;;;;;;, ;;;;;;;
Boulder Dash
In “Roaming Rocks of Death
Valley” (#98), NASA scientists
showed that strong winds and
thin layers of ice are responsible for boulders that mysteriously glide across the desert.
Judging by the straight path
of the boulder pictured in this
story, it appears that when
the conditions are just right
for these rocks to slide across
the desert ;oor, the wind
always blows in the same
direction. You would think
that there would be some
randomness or deviation in
the boulders’ paths.
Larry Benson
;;;;;;;;, ;;
The editors reply:
;e photograph shows only a
small portion of the boulder’s
path. “Rock trails are curved
and include zigzag, switchback,
and ;gure-eight patterns, ” says
NASA space scientist Cynthia
Cheung, who studies boulder
migration in Death Valley
National Park. “ We have found
rocks right near each other that
nonetheless moved in di;erent
directions, possibly because of
varying temperature, humidity,
and wind speed conditions even
over short distances. ”
Erratum
“;e Science Traveler’s Guide”
(page ;;, January/February)
mistakenly stated that Napoleon
lived out his exile on the island
of Elba. He actually escaped in
;;;; and after Waterloo lived
out his ;nal exile on St. Helena.
