Letters: Nov. 6, 2000

I was delighted to see your coverage of the world-renowned Nobel Prizes and the brief survey of winners who merited the award and those who were overlooked [SCIENCE, Oct. 16]. But I was dismayed at the item "Three Who Should Never Have Won." Medical science is under constant revision. What is state of the art today may not be tomorrow, as new discoveries lead to a revision of our understanding of how things work. The inclusion in your list of psychiatrist Julius Wagner von Jauregg as an unworthy Nobel recipient is incredible. His malaria-fever therapy to treat dementia was used throughout the world for 50 years and helped relieve a lot of suffering. ROBERT A. HARRIS Stockholm

I feel strongly that Mohandas Gandhi, who came close to being chosen the Person of the 20th Century by your magazine, is one of the people who was overlooked by the Nobel committee. He should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. On second thought, however, if the Mahatma had been given the Peace Prize, it would have been the Nobel Foundation that was honored! SORAIYUR V. RAMAN Wassenaar, the Netherlands

Rather than label Johannes Fibiger, Antonio Moniz and Julius Wagner von Juaregg as unworthy recipients of the Nobel Prize, you should have seen their work for what it was: medical advances for the age they lived in. After all, most of the acclaimed scientific advances today could prove to be gross errors a century from now, when our knowledge may have leaped geometrically beyond today's boundaries. BIODUN OLUSESI Lagos

Risk or Reform

My question to those who are in favor of vouchers that use tax dollars to help parents send their kids to private schools [EDUCATION, Oct. 9]: Would those schools be required to take anyone who appears at their front door? My daughter is an eighth-grader in an urban school with tremendous economic, racial and ethnic diversity. I feel she is learning in the real world from dedicated teachers who embrace the challenge. But if middle-class students and high-achieving children who are less privileged can be tempted to leave this wonderful school, the delicate balance that makes it work may be destroyed. Rather than vouchers, why not a program that encourages affordable housing in all school districts so that everyone will have a chance to become part of a community and also attend an excellent public school? RUBY ANSTADT Burlington, Vt.

Comparing the performance of students who use vouchers with that of students in the same school district who don't use them is meaningless. A better test would be to weigh the performance of voucher students against that of comparable students in a district where vouchers are not available. TOM PITTMAN Spreckels, Calif.