Sharon Begley of the Wall Street Journal

Avid readers will know of my previous discussions of articles by Sharon Begley of the Wall Street Journal regarding issues in science. Click above for a link to her 1/28/05 article (There should be a subscription required, but since I've paid for the subscription it works for me. I don't know if it works for you without the subscription or not!) I send her an open letter email on this article:

Ms. Begley,

You never did attempt to answer the questions I posed for you, but I'll let you try again. You are allowed to ask any woman scientist you want. The more the merrier! Just note how many you have to ask to get the correct answers to these questions.

Why should female astronauts not wear underwire bras? (No fair asking a female astronaut! You can ask all the men you want, it should be hilarious!).

If heat rises, is it the steam that allows an iron to heat the clothes?

If Bernoulli's Equation governs the flow around an airplane wing, how can the Blue Angels fly inverted?

Try those questions on the smartest women (and most men too!) you know and you'll get baffled looks. If you need a cheat sheet, email me the likeliest answers and I'll give you a response. I'll also post on my blog http://machiasprivateer.blogspot.com/

Update 1/31/05 5:38 PM - Aside to Lee. Your answers are creative, but not strictly correct. You are warmest on #3. I do not intend to be a tease, but I want to give Ms. Begley a chance to survey her friends and contacts without a public cheat sheet being available. Therefore, since this is my third attempt to get an answer from her, we'll consider that the third strike is called by the ump with the publication of her next column. Normally, this is on Fridays, so check back 2/4/05 for a further status report.