"Truth," wrote American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, "is our element." With a flow of queries and comments, readers essayed to distill this element from nearly every topic in the June issue of Scientific American. Some, after reading "The Dawn of Physics beyond the Standard Model," by Gordon Kane, questioned just how close to true a unified theory based on particles could get. In response to the profile of a U.N. weapons inspector ["One Last Look," by Gary Stix, Insights], many insisted that judgments about Iraqi weapons programs be based on tangible, verifiable evidence. Several joined resident Skeptic Michael Shermer in challenging what does count as actual evidence, vis-¿-vis Michael Drosnin's book The Bible Code ["Codified Claptrap"]. Reactions to these and other elements in our periodical table of contents fill this column.

This article was originally published with the title Letters.

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