reader feedback
You talk, we listen! Here’s what you had to say about previous issues of id. Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. Keep ’ em coming.
HAVE YOU HEARD THE BUZZ?
In regards to your honeybee article in your December issue [Q& A, “What Will Remain If the Bees Are Gone?”]: Don’t count ’em out yet! Yisee, I don’t have a car, so I’m forced to “hoof it” over 1.5 miles to the nearest bus stop, and when you’re “on the ground” you tend to notice things… Things such as a dramatic increase in the numbers of other types of bees, as well as other species of nectar/pollen–feeding insects to pick up the slack. It was drought that affected the apple crop this year, not the lack of honeybees. Also, just before the cold weather began, they started to appear again! Runty-looking and far darker than regular ones, but unmistakably honeybees. Hybrids? Mutants? New type? Don’t know. But I DO know that we shouldn’t count ’em out yet! Bernardo Figueredo, Rochester, NH We appreciate your observations on what’s going on with the bees in your neck of the woods. It’s quite fascinating how nature abhors a vacuum, and in the absence of one kind of bee, another kind seems to have swarmed in to fill the void. It’s always good to have eyes “on the ground” out in the field, so we welcome all our readers to share their perceptions about the conditions of their local wildlife.
BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
The March 2017 issue was yet another fantastic issue. Thank you for making a magazine that is addictive to read!
With regard to the “What Doctors Don’t Tell Us” article, there was one detail left out about the flu shot discussion. Although it changes every year based on best guesses for which strains to include, it always contains the H1N1 antibody, which likely prevents the most deadly form of the flu. Having personally witnessed a person with 100% collapse of their respiratory system from H1N1- caused pneumonia (requiring an external lung machine), it would be terrible to think that some of your readers might toy with not getting the flu shot. John from Saginaw, Texas Thanks for writing in to share that information with other readers. Ultimately we all have to make choices about what’s right for our health as individuals, but our choices should be informed, so it is most helpful to have as much pertinent knowledge as possible to work with. We always appreciate our readers’ vigilance!
THE ANNEDROIDS HAVE ARRIVED
Here’s one for science-minded kids: A new “droid- driven” season of Annedroids, the Emmy-nominated Amazon Original Kids live-action adventure series, is now available for streaming on Prime Video.
Join a burgeoning young scientist named Anne and her best human friends along with the android assistants Anne has created as they experiment with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) on their way to making amazing scientific discoveries while undertaking the biggest experiment of them all: growing up. Through trial and error, the series spotlights how science, technology, engineering, and math can inspire kids to do great things.
The new season of this imaginative show also sheds light on the concept of a modernday family, where “family” isn’t necessarily defined by a blood relation, but rather by the people closest to you. In this season, Anne, Nick, and Shania band together and use scientific approaches to solve myriad problems, including getting lost in the wilderness, dealing with a friend moving out of town, building a robot for a competition, and defending the junkyard from a hostile takeover—which leads to an action-packed season finale!