Discover – September 2019

CORRECTIONS

We had some errors in our

July/August issue:

A production file error resulted in

several mistakes in the periodic

table of elements: an incorrect

chemical symbol, and various

names and atomic weights that

had been flip-flopped. A corrected

and printable version is available at

DiscoverMagazine.com/periodic

along with an updated version of

the story.

A small illustration of the types

of tectonic plates was incorrect.

Denser oceanic plates sink below

continental plates.

On a misty autumn

morning in Australia’s

Royal National Park,

just south of Sydney,

a peloton of nearly

two dozen cyclists

tackles a 3,740-foot

ascent. When they

reach the highest

point of the day’s

45-mile ride —

the first leg of a

weeklong journey

— they’re rewarded

with cookies and

candy from support

staff, followed by

a downhill glide

along a sandstone

escarpment. Far

below them, waves

of the Pacific barrel

toward shore and

explode in clouds

of foam.

The group is not

training for an athletic

event. Instead, the

21 cyclists and their

support crew have

united to promote

an unconventional

pain management

approach. The team

wants to start a

revolution. The road

T ahead is a long one.

A

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H

E

Just one incident

can make the brain

overreact to future

experiences. Researchers

believe the solution is

to reframe and retrain.

BY CATHRYN JAKOBSON RAMIN

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John

Richburg

I already have. Twice.

I now know I am genetically

predisposed to macular degeneration.

I can spend the rest of my life keeping

that closely monitored and take steps to

prevent it before any symptoms show up.

My grandmother on my father’s side

and my mother both died too early from

Alzheimer’s. Any testing I can do, and

research I can help with, is much

preferable to me than to sit back

and do nothing but wait to lose

my mind.

Brett

Palmer

Ancestry, yes; health,

no. There are certain

things I don’t wanna

know. For example, if I’m

gonna get Alzheimer’s,

I’d rather be

surprised.

PRINT FEEDBACK

Decoding CRISPR

(“The State of Science: Genetics,” January/

February 2019)

I devoured Jessica McDonald’s story on

genetics with such interest that I kept

the pages open on my bedside table so

that I could read it again. And, perhaps

on the fourth or fifth read, I became

somewhat concerned that people might be

frustrated by the acronym CRISPR, which

is referred to over and over again. Those

of us with journalism, scientific and similar

backgrounds might know the term, but a

first-time reader might not. I don’t think a

brief definition of the acronym would have

taken up that much space.

Richard V.H. Buell

Cochrane, Ontario, Canada

Editor’s note: CRISPR stands for

clustered regularly interspaced short

palindromic repeats.

Embracing the Itch

(“Tame the Pain,” March 2019)

This article fit nicely into something I’ve

been exploring lately. Whenever I had an

itch or discomfort, I would immediately

scratch or rub it. I sometimes worried,

“What would I do if I couldn’t scratch it?”

That sort of situation would drive me crazy.

But then one day I thought, “This is just an

electrical signal going from a part of my

body to my brain, so it really only exists in

my brain.” It seems to me that pain is similar,

except the pain is telling you things like,

“Take your hand off the hot stove, stupid.”

Even though pain evolved to help us avoid

things that harm our bodies, the pain itself

is an epiphenomenon — it really only exists

in our brains.

Arthur Jackson

San Jose, Calif.

Cost of Care

(“The Big Sleep,” December 2018)

The writer, Eliezer J. Sternberg, describes

the case of a woman who goes from an

ambulance to the emergency room to the

ICU. He outlines various treatments, drugs

administered, etc., before settling on a

diagnosis. All told, the patient spent nine

months in the hospital and was still there at

the end of the article. My question concerns

something not mentioned in the article:

Who paid for all of this medical care? Health

insurance? Medicare or Medicaid? The

patient herself? The Good Fairy, perhaps?

I have read all the Vital Signs articles that

have been published, and the matter of

cost, and who pays it, is almost never

mentioned. I believe this very important

aspect of medical care should be addressed

in the future.

Paul Wolff

Flushing, N.Y.

WEB FEEDBACK

To Test or Not to Test?

DNA testing kits, like those from 23andMe,

AncestryDNA and MyHeritage, are all the

rage. In a time when personal information is

already hard to protect, some people worry

about shipping off their genetic information.

Still, on top of breaking down your ancestry,

many of the tests claim to be able to tell

you if you have genetic markers linked to

a range of medical issues — an appealing

feature for many consumers. We asked our

Facebook followers: Would you take a DNA

test for ancestry or health reasons?

7 0%

YES

NO

30%

NONO

Address letters to: DISCOVER

21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box 1612

Waukesha, WI 53187-

Email: [email protected]

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Barb

Overton

No. I have concerns

about the ethics for use of

genetic material or information.

If there are huge profits to be

made, shouldn’t some of that go

to the person who supplied the

genetic material? What

about privacy issues for

the person whose cells

are used?

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

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DISCOVER 7

INBOX

Feedback is edited

for space and clarity.