Scientific American - USA (2022-06)

June 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 7

ESTABLISHED 1845

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HOW TO CONTACT US

Subscriptions

For new subscriptions, renewals, gifts,

payments, and changes of address:

U.S. and Canada, 800-333-1199;

outside North America, 515-248-7684 or

[email protected]

Submissions

To submit article proposals, follow the

guidelines at http://www.ScientificAmerican.com.

Click on “Contact Us.”

We cannot return and are not responsible

for materials delivered to our office.

Reprints

To order bulk reprints of articles (minimum

of 1,000 copies): [email protected].

Reprint Department,

Scientific American,

1 New York Plaza,

Suite 4600,

New York, NY

10004-1562;

212-451-8415.

For single copies of back issues: 800-333-1199.

Permissions

For permission to copy or reuse material:

Permissions Department, Scientific

American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600,

New York, NY 10004-1562; [email protected];

http://www.ScientificAmerican.com/permissions.

Please allow six to eight weeks for processing.

Advertising

http://www.ScientificAmerican.com has electronic

contact information for sales representatives

of Scientific American in all regions of

the U.S. and in other countries.

Scientific American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004-1562 or [email protected]

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that we cannot answer each one.

Join the conversation online—visit Scientific American on Facebook and Twitter.

PRESIDENT

Kimberly Lau

CORPORATE

HEAD, COMMUNICATIONS, USA Rachel Scheer

PRESS MANAGER Sarah Hausman

ANCILLARY PRODUCTS

CONSUMER MARKETING & PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD Raja Abdulhaq

HEAD, MARKETING Christopher Monello

SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER Ian Kelly

SENIOR WEB PRODUCER Jessica Ramirez

SENIOR COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Christine Kaelin

MARKETING COORDINATOR Justin Camera

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Michael Florek VICE PRESIDENT, COMMERCIAL Andrew Douglas

PUBLISHER AND VICE PRESIDENT Jeremy A. Abbate VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT SERVICES Stephen Pincock

CLIENT MARKETING SOLUTIONS

MARKETING DIRECTOR, INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS AND CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT Jessica Cole

PROGRAMMATIC PRODUCT MANAGER Zoya Lysak

DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED MEDIA Matt Bondlow

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Stan Schmidt

HEAD, PUBLISHING STRATEGY Suzanne Fromm

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Diane McGarvey

CUSTOM PUBLISHING EDITOR Lisa Pallatroni

PRINT PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Madelyn Keyes-Milch ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Michael Broomes

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN CUSTOM MEDIA

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, CONTENT SERVICES Cliff Ransom CREATIVE DIRECTOR Wojtek Urbanek

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Kris Fatsy MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Ben Gershman

ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Dharmesh Patel ACCOUNT MANAGER Samantha Lubey

A R T

EDITORIAL Amy Brady, Katherine Harmon Courage, Lydia Denworth, Ferris Jabr,

Anna Kuchment, Michael D. Lemonick, Robin Lloyd,

Steve Mirsky, Melinda Wenner Moyer, George Musser, Ricki L. Rusting,

Dava Sobel, Claudia Wallis, Daisy Yuhas

ART Edward Bell, Violet Isabelle Francis, Lawrence R. Gendron, Nick Higgins, Kim Hubbard, Katie Peek, Beatrix Mahd Soltani

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Laura Helmuth

SENIOR GRAPHICS EDITOR Jen Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Monica Bradley ART DIRECTOR, ONLINE Ryan Reid

ASSOCIATE GRAPHICS EDITOR Amanda Montañez ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Liz Tormes

COPY AND PRODUCTION

SENIOR COPY EDITORS Angelique Rondeau, Aaron Shattuck

MANAGING PRODUCTION EDITOR Richard Hunt PREPRESS AND QUALITY MANAGER Silvia De Santis

CONTRIBUTORS

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

E D I T O R I A L

CHIEF FEATURES EDITOR Seth Fletcher CHIEF NEWS EDITOR Dean Visser CHIEF OPINION EDITOR Megha Satyanarayana

FEATURES

SENIOR EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Mark Fischetti

SENIOR EDITOR, MEDICINE / SCIENCE POLICY 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

SENIOR EDITOR, SPACE / PHYSICS Lee Billings

SENIOR EDITOR, HEALTH AND MEDICINE Tanya Lewis

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY Sophie Bushwick

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Andrea Thompson

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Sarah Lewin Frasier

MULTIMEDIA

CHIEF MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Jeffery DelViscio

SENIOR MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Tulika Bose

SENIOR EDITOR, AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT Sunya Bhutta

SENIOR EDITOR, COLLECTIONS Andrea Gawrylewski

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT SUPERVISOR Maya Harty SENIOR EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Brianne Kane

EDITORS EMERITI Mariette DiChristina, John Rennie

piece on how Congress should uphold the
right to repair electronic devices. Readers
interested in getting involved with hands-
on right to repair might be interested in
checking out their local Fixit Clinic (https://
fixitclinic.blogspot.com) or Repair Café
(https://repaircafe.org). There are many
such organizations around the world with
dedicated volunteer repair coaches helping
others learn how to fix their broken stuff.
And over the past couple of years these clin-
ics have been happening virtually, with glob-
al participants engaging in fun and infor-
mative repair activities. We try our best to
work together to diagnose and repair appli-
ances, electronics, and so on but are con-
cerned about manufacturers making this
more difficult, if not impossible or illegal.
Wayne Seltzer
Boulder U-Fix-It Clinic, Boulder, Colo.

TRUTH IN LABELING
“Inside America’s Militias,” by Amy Cooter
[January 2022], is chilling. The media and
academics must stop calling these groups
“militias.” It gives them a legitimacy that
they do not have and reinforces their irra-
tional belief that they are the present-day
equivalent of the militias that helped win
the Revolutionary War. A more apt label
would be “heavily armed political vigilan-
te groups.” Labels are important.
Terrence Dunn Vancouver, Wash.

BOREAL IMPORTANCE
In “Smartphone Patrol,” by Annie Sneed
[Advances; December 2021], much is made
about the importance of the Amazon rain
forest, which serves as a diminishing but
necessary carbon sink and a provider of
life-giving oxygen. Less attention, howev-
er, is paid to another forested region on our
planet: the boreal forests in northern lati-
tudes stretching across several regions of
North America, Russia and Scandinavia.
In terms of sequestering carbon dioxide
and contributing oxygen to our atmosphere,
these boreal forests are as equally impor-
tant as the tropical forests at lower latitudes.
It should therefore be an equal priority to
carefully monitor activities such as logging,
clearing land for agriculture, road building
and especially mining in these areas, which
are often neglected in discussions about
global warming.
Barry Maletzky Portland, Ore.