Readers discuss the psychedelic psilocybin, frogs and UFOs

As much as the mark

A high dose of the psychedelic psilocybin temporarily dissolves brain networks, Laura Sanders reported in “Psilocybin erases brain ‘fingerprints’” (SN: 8/10/24, p. 12).

Right during the learn about, a generic kind of the stimulant Ritalin served as a keep an eye on against psilocybin. Reader Jason Patrick asked why scientists chose that drug.

It truly is much ready to be difficult to design studies of psychedelics because the drugs’ effects are on your entire obvious to both researchers and participants, Sanders says. Though the keep an eye on, often referred to as methylphenidate, and psilocybin produce very different experiences, the drugs have some similarities, Sanders says. Both impact levels of chemical messengers within the brain and would in all probability expand the body’s arousal, elevating heart rate and blood pressure.

A ribbiting story

Some Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are proof against the deadly chytrid fungus often referred to as Bd, hinting at methods to avoid wasting frog species worldwide, Martin J. Kernan reported in “Bouncing back” (SN: 8/10/24, p. 22).

Enlightened by the story, reader Devin J. Starlanyl reflected on the frogs in his community. “I became more educated in regards to the prospective threat to frogs in our own ecosystems, and the way without difficulty they'll be threatened,” Starlanyl wrote. “Our evenings in spring are enhanced by the songs of our brook frogs. Now we have got named the leaders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Our lives may perhaps be a lot dimmer without the songs of Guilde and Rozie the Ribbiter,” he wrote. “I plan to contact our conservation commission about a solution to secure the health of our brook and our frogs.”

Debunked displays

UFOs almost definitely aren’t aliens, so scientists are taking a look out for the real origins of what are now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, Sid Perkins reported in “UFOs get a rebrand” (SN: 8/10/24, p. Sixteen).

The story reminded reader Don Wolman of alleged UFO sightings in Utah within the Sixties. A 1978 paper in Applied Optics suggested that the mysterious light displays were almost definitely in consequence swarms of spruce budworm moths, now now not aliens. As the insects “flew through electrified air within the sky, their legs and antennae glowed with St. Elmo’s fire,” Wolman wrote. The atmospheric phenomenon produces glowing plasma around objects in an electrically charged field.