Ill-advised publication

The four pretty micrographs in the letter "Sight for sore eyes" (C&EN, Dec. 5, 2005, page 6) were indeed pleasing to my eyesight. However, the accompanying text was shocking to my brain, and your decision to publish it may be injurious to C&EN's reputation.

The author describes crystals of hyaluronan as something entirely new that "sent [his] heart racing" and show "a long-range order that [he] never thought was possible." He then goes on with incredible speculations about their origins; that is, that somehow "the light source from the optical microscope causes [these molecules] to self-assemble spontaneously."

Of course, such structures have been studied for centuries in organic materials crystallizing from solution; they even have a name (dendrites). They have also specifically been described for all kinds of biomacromolecules such as hyaluronan. In fact, single crystals were demonstrated even for DNA as far back as 1969 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1969, 62, 964). And obviously the microscope light has nothing to do with their formation; it is the evaporation of the water that causes the dendrites to form when the solution becomes supersaturated in the dissolved molecules.

The largest circulation journal of the world's largest scientific society should have known better than to publish such claims unreviewed. C&EN should have advised the author to submit this letter to an appropriate scientific journal for peer review. Why, C&EN even has some sister publications called Macromolecules and Biomacromolecules that should be able to handle this.

Andrew J. Lovinger
Arlington, Va.