I agree. Perhaps, the momentum is heading towards that direction. And there is this group of people that's trying to do something about it, etc. Welcome aboard ! Go for it !

By the way, I sent an e-mail to 60 minutes. And this was their response:

"If you wish to bring a matter to the attention of 60 MINUTES, it must be done in writing via postal mail. Please write to:

Story Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News
524 West 57 Street
New York, NY 10019

60 MINUTES requests that all story suggestions be submitted in concise, written form. Please do not send any additional materials that might have to be returned until you are specifically requested to do so by the 60 MINUTES staff. We receive a large number of story suggestions each week and cannot rule out the possibility that tapes or documents might be misplaced.

Whatever subjects 60 MINUTES explores in the future, we hope you will find the series informative and thought-provoking."

[This message has been edited by HHIssues (edited 06-29-2001).]

Just when I thought there was an opportunity to obtain more information about the Otogene company. Unforunately, I ran into some problems in doing so.

Ok, to see what I mean, first go to the following Otogene's "Contact Us" website:

http://www.otogene.com/www/framesets/contact_frames.htm

- Then on the top of the page, do you see where it says "Feedback", click on it...

- In it there's a form where it says "I would like to obtain additional information"

At first, I thought "Great, now we can get more information".

Then filled out the form and checkmarked where it said, "Clinical trials information". And then pressed the "send" button". Unfortunately, it ran into some "Formail" errors.

Status: First, I asked a friend of mine to try filling out the form from his end. He ran into the same problem. I then called Otogene and reached one of their employees. To inform this person of the error. The person said to send them an e-mail, which I followed up on it. It was at the beginning of last week. Haven't heard from them since.

Once I received any information that the form was fixed. I'll let any interested parties know about it, etc.

** HHIssues **

Perhaps, I ought to make a list and try to track down as many centers or labs as I can that's working on hair cell regeneration. Should make an interesting list ? Perhaps, it's one of my next projects to work on !

Just to let you all know, I managed to send a message using the 'Feedback' form on the Otogene website.
The trick is to enter the German web address of www.otogene.de into your browser instead of .com
When you use this address, follow the links as HHIssues explains and you should find it works!

If you do get a reply back from Otogene it would be greatly appreciated if you could pass on the information?

Thanks,
Bob

Great ! Thanks for letting the others know about this other Otogene's web address.

I just tried it myself and it worked ! Now, I'm kind of curious what information will they send to us as a result. Hopefully, it's something we can be optimistic about. We'll wait and see. Keep up the good work !

Now, I plan to tell some of the others that's also interested in this, about this other ".de" website, etc.

** HHIssues **

Or, has anyone heard from the Otogene company ? Whether you sent them an e-mail or filled out the form to request for more information, etc ?

Thanks for posting the link to that website. I'm making a list of the different centers or labs that I could find that's working on hair cell regeneration. Thus I just added the one you posted to the list ! I've got about 10 of them listed thus far. I plan to post the list in here and in other message boards for others to see, etc. Keep up the good work !

Dear 20/20 Viewer:

Thank you for your letter suggesting a story for 20/20. Given the high volume of letters we receive daily, we apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

As you know, each 20/20 broadcast features only three subjects which we must select from hundreds of ideas. Your e-mail was forwarded to the Story Editor. It has been read and discussed but unfortunately, it was not chosen to become one of our show segments.

Thank you for being in touch with 20/20. We appreciate that you are thinking of us.

Sincerely,

The Story Editors
ABC News 20/20

Thanks for posting the response from 20/20, Kind of makes you wonder what segments they thought would be more interesting/informative to the general public? Back in April I sent a letter to NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday. I do not know if this has been on your mailing list, but if not their address is www.sciencefriday.com.

Thanks for letting me know about ScienceFriday. I've even posted the info in the other message board. Even stated that since someone already wrote to them, the others might as well join its bandwagon. Since the more people that write to these places, the more they may think along the lines of "Hmm, there might be some substance to it after all..." ?

Shown below, it even stated in the FAQ section:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/misc/faq/faqs.html

Why don't you do a show about....

We love to get show suggestions. You just might hear your idea on the air! For example, the idea for our recent show on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the electron came, in part, from a listener suggestion. While obviously we can't produce a show about every possible topic, we do take all ideas into consideration when we're planning future shows. Good suggestions should be timely - there needs to be a reason that the show should be done NOW. Issues should affect a large number of people, or be something that people nationwide would be interested in talking about. And they should be as specific as possible - but not so specific that we'd have trouble talking about the issue for an hour without running out of things to say. Send ideas to us at the above address, or e-mail scifri@npr.org