AIR Vents -- The Lugnut Letters (Part 1 of 2)

Exhalations from our readers

NOTE: The opinions expressed here represent the opinions of the authors, and may not represent the opinions of those who have other opinions

FURTHER NOTE: These are just part of our voluminous collection of letters on this contentious topic

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In Re Louis the Lugnut

You dastardly FIENDS!!!! How could you kill Louis the Lugnut??????! Bring him back!!!!!!!

F. T. Alvis, Ph.D.
University of Cambridge
England

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Grudging Melancholia

I've always felt that a cartoon strip was somehow out of place in AIR. But now that he's gone, I must admit that I will miss Louis the Lugnut. Sigh.

Joyce Lee, Visiting Professor
Prague Institute of Standards Research
Prague

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Greasy Child

I grew up reading the adventures of Louis the Lugnut. My friends and I would pretend that that we were like Louis. We loved to paint ourselves silver and draw thread marks on our clothes and smudge axle grease on our faces. And all but two of us grew up to be scientists (those two grew up to be auto mechanics). And now you've killed poor Louis. DC Comics brought that dimwit Superman back from the dead — can't you bring back Louis? Please?

Ke Shui Yang
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

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Nix to the Nut

At last you have rid AIR of the one thing that drove me crazy: Louis the Lugnut. Hurrah! Hurrah! It was never funny, and in recent years it became too political, especially concerning the big science / little science debate.

Elsie Lajoie, M.D.
Toulouse, France

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It's the Little Things

I suppose that Louis the Lugnut is now a creature of history. But I shall never forget that Louis derived concise, complete quantitative descriptions of quarks several years before any of the "real" nuclear scientists did. And as usual, Louis got the details right but no one believed him at the time!

Hanna Berke, M.D., Ph.D.
Haifa, Israel

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Eloquent Plea

Bring back the little lug, you big lugs.

Frederick B. Hawes
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA

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Black Hole from Way Back

I will miss Louis the Lugnut. I first encounted Louis when I was a graduate student in Oslo and somebody (I forget who) handed me a ripped out page with a comic strip on it. I remember so many of the Louis the Lugnut episodes, in particular the one that introduced the idea that black holes could disintegrate. This was at least five years before Stephen Hawking came out with his celebrated theory that "discovered" what Louis had already told us.

Prof. I. I. Hilgen
Rotterdam
The Netherlands

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