Letters archive

Your article 'Fair deal denied to people displaced by dam' (This Week, 3 August) was an interesting and timely piece but lacked analysis of the nature of the protest movement - something too often neglected in reports of Third World issues. For example, you describe Medha Pathkar (misspelt 'Modha') as 'a key figure in the …

Tam Dalyell's Thistle Diary piece, 'Acid reigns over Europe', suggests that National Power is doing nothing about acid rain (Forum, 17 August). Let me put the record straight. In fact, we are undertaking a range of actions to reduce emissions from our power stations. We are investing £700 million in the world's largest single atmospheric …

What has been obscured is that greens (or environmentalists) can appear on both sides of a dispute; the fault lies not with the scientists but with the greens themselves. Take, for example, the consumption of nonrenewable resources. In order to alleviate this problem one might have expected greens to support the use of hydroelectric power, …

Following the recent solution of the flamingo mystery by New Scientist readers (Letters, 10 and 17 August), I wonder whether any of them can shed light on a similar enigma which has been perplexing my daughter and myself. Why aren't sheep green? S. P. Kingsley University of Sheffield

In view of the continuing interest in the Piltdown imposture, it may be worth drawing the attention of your readers to a piece of literary evidence that may shed some light on the matter. This evidence is to be found in the book The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As your readers will …

I write to support Steven Yearley in the debate on the relationship between science and environmentalism ('Greens and science: a doomed affair?', 13 July). Research on the role of science in acid rain policy in Britain and Germany demonstrates that Paul Johnston and Mark Simmonds are well intentioned but misguided (Talking Point, 3 August). The …

Your report about rail passenger safety in the event of a slow speed rail crash, which states that seated passengers are unlikely to suffer injury, is rather misleading (This Week, 17 August). From the experience of a colleague of mine and myself, who reviewed injuries following a rail crash at Kensal Green on 16 October …

Donald Gould's article 'Goodbye to the heart bypass' (Forum, 17 August) compares predictions of the 1969 publication Medicines in the 1990s with today's state-of-the-art in medicine, and finds those prognostications both off-target and funny. Perhaps Donald Gould would do a similar article based on the New Scientist volumes of predictions published in 1964 entitled The …

I thought everyone knew that clover fixed nitrogen in its roots and that planting clover would work as a way of fertilising crops with nitrogen. It just goes to show that thinking everyone knows something is a mistake, perhaps a very costly mistake. It is extremely encouraging that the technique of planting clover as an …

I confess it was I who castigated New Scientist for its derogatory coverage of Helen Sharman's Juno mission after the schools' press conference (Forum, 10 August)). As a regular reader, who exhorts students to make New Scientst required background study for A-level science courses, I make no apology. Agreed, the original concept of the Juno …

Forest peoples may indeed be guardians of a detailed knowledge of the curative properties of tropical forest species. And, as Chris Bird points out ('Medicines from the rainforest', 17 August) there is a potential bonanza of profits to be made by the pharmaceuticals companies in exploiting this knowledge. But will this help these peoples, or …