Scientific American 2019-04

(Rick Simeone) #1
April 2019, ScientificAmerican.com 5

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HOW TO CONTACT US

A R T
ART DIRECTOR Jason Mischka SENIOR GRAPHICS EDITOR Jen Christiansen
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Monica Bradley ART DIRECTOR, ONLINE Ryan Reid
ASSOCIATE GRAPHICS EDITOR Amanda Montañez ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Liz Tormes
COPY AND PRODUCTION
SENIOR COPY EDITORS Michael Battaglia, Daniel C. Schlenoff COPY EDITOR Aaron Shattuck
MANAGING PRODUCTION EDITOR Richard Hunt PREPRESS AND QUALITY MANAGER Silvia De Santis
DIGITAL
PRODUCT MANAGER Ian Kelly WEB PRODUCER Jessica Ramirez

EDITORIAL David Biello, Deboki Chakravarti, Lydia Denworth, W. Wayt Gibbs, Ferris Jabr,
Anna Kuchment, Robin Lloyd, Melinda Wenner Moyer, George Musser,
Christie Nicholson, John Rennie, Ricki L. Rusting
ART Edward Bell, Bryan Christie, Lawrence R. Gendron, Nick Higgins

CONTRIBUTORS

MANAGING EDITOR Curtis Brainard COPY DIRECTOR Maria-Christina Keller CREATIVE DIRECTOR Michael Mrak

EDITOR IN CHIEF AND SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Mariette DiChristina

E D I T O R I A L
CHIEF FEATURES EDITOR Seth Fletcher CHIEF NEWS EDITOR Dean Visser CHIEF OPINION EDITOR Michael D. Lemonick
FEATURES
SENIOR EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Mark Fischetti
SENIOR EDITOR, CHEMISTRY / POLICY / BIOLOGY Josh Fischman
SENIOR EDITOR, SPACE / PHYSICS Clara Moskowitz

SENIOR EDITOR, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Madhusree Mukerjee
SENIOR EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY / MIND Jen Schwartz
SENIOR EDITOR, EVOLUTION / ECOLOGY Kate Wong
NEWS
SENIOR EDITOR, MIND / BRAIN Gary Stix
ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SPACE / PHYSICS Lee Billings

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY Sophie Bushwick
ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Andrea Thompson
ASSISTANT EDITOR, NEWS Tanya Lewis
DIGITAL CONTENT
MANAGING MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Eliene Augenbraun
SENIOR EDITOR, MULTIMEDIA Steve Mirsky

ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Sunya Bhutta
COLLECTIONS EDITOR Andrea Gawrylewski

EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Ericka Skirpan SENIOR SECRETARY Maya Harty

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HEAD, COMMUNICATIONS, USA Rachel Scheer

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ATTRIBUTION LEERY
Please refrain from misattributing pop-
ular sayings to celebrities. “Rethinking
the ‘Anthropocene,’ ” by the Editors [Sci-
ence Agenda], quotes Albert Einstein as
asserting, “We cannot solve our problems
with the same thinking we used when we
created them.” There is no evidence that
Einstein said or wrote those words. The
nearest we come seems to be a passage in
a 1948 essay in which he argued that a
“supranational organization” should be
given sole authority over atomic weapons:
“Our situation is not comparable to any-
thing in the past. It is impossible, there-
fore, to apply methods and measures
which at an earlier age might have been
sufficient. We must revolutionize our
think ing, revolutionize our actions, and
must have the courage to revolutionize re-
lations among nations of the world. Cli-
chés of yesterday will no longer do today,
and will, no doubt, be hopelessly out of
date tomorrow.”
Steven Wenner Cohasset, Mass.


THE EDITORS REPLY: We would like to
thank Wenner for pointing out that this
quote is most likely apocryphal, as is in-
dicated by the seeming elusiveness of a
primary source and the existence of sev-
eral variations. In the future, we will not
allow for the inclusion of any quotes com-
monly attributed to famous figures unless
they can be fully substantiated.


CLARIFICATION
“A Meditation on Keyboard Shortcuts,” by
David Pogue [TechnoFiles], should not
have implied that Apple was the first to use
keyboard shortcuts by referring to them
as “Apple’s brilliant innovation.” The com-
pany was an early adopter of shortcuts.

E R R ATA
“Hidden Inferno,” by Shannon Hall, should
have described winds blowing potential
volcanic ash from the Laguna del Maule
region in Chile to Argentina as westerly,
not easterly. Further, it should not have de-
scribed 1,200 degrees Celsius as 50  per-
cent hotter than 800 degrees  C, because
such comparisons break down at different
scales of temperature: in kelvins, the for-
mer temperature would be 37  percent hot-
ter than the latter.
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