Inbox: Nov. 12, 2007

If radio-frequency identification tags could be implanted in people to keep track of their location, they should certainly be embedded in baggage [Oct. 29]. They would make lost luggage easy to find, and travelers and airlines could save a lot of money and aggravation.

Cinda Yager, MINNEAPOLIS

Nurturing Nobel Winners

The essay on geneticist Mario Capecchi eloquently described his remarkable life [Oct. 22]. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded his innovative research for nearly 40 years. As the Essay noted, when Capecchi submitted a grant application for studies that included the work leading to the Nobel Prize, the group of scientists evaluating the proposal expressed skepticism about the experiments. Nevertheless, the evaluators gave the application an outstanding overall score, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded the grant in 1981. The flexibility of the NIH grant system made it possible for Capecchi to use the funds, in part, for his Nobel Prize-winning work. American taxpayers can be very proud of their support of biomedical and behavioral research through the NIH, which has led to significant medical advances by thousands of scientists at universities, medical schools and other institutions in all 50 states and has contributed to 122 Nobel Prizes.

Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., Director National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health

BETHESDA, MD.

'Celebrity culture has led to crazed consumerism. Parents, wake up: corporations create Hannah Montana types to grow profits, not to help parents raise their children.'

Christopher M. Petersen, PHILADELPHIA