Letters archive

A few years ago I noticed a strange phenomenon. When flipping a 10 pence coin, or any silver coin, under fluorescent lighting, I was sure it momentarily flashed gold. I repeated it over and over and though only momentary it was quite definite (try it for yourself). It occurred to me that the flash was …

I wonder if the following may be of interest to someone in medical research. I, along with millions more, have a problem with piles. But since I started taking long haul holidays I found that the problem disappeared during the holiday and for a few weeks after returning. After considering various aspects, I finally realised …

If migrating birds rely heavily on the direction of the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, what would happen in the event of the Earth's magnetic field reversing? (New Scientist, Science, 25 January). If the reversing took place between migrating seasons or over a few years, would it not wipe out the world's migrating bird population? …

In 'Faces from the past' (11 January), the Cyberware 3D colour digitised image of the Homo fossil face was made in the Department of Biomedical Visualization, University of Illinois, Chicago (Michael Doyle, Head), with the assistance of Xiaoming Chen and Alfie Rosenberger.

I have been directly involved with the construction of three relatively long tunnels, each of which was driven and guided from a single shaft. Thus there was no opportunity to check the alignment until breakthrough at the receiving end. All three tunnels were in Britain and were driven from north to south. The first, 7 …

Timothy O'Riordan uses the issue of man's impact on the environment to discuss the relationship between science and society (Talking Point, 25 January). As our stewardship of the environment may be, literally, a matter of life and death, it is unfortunate that the article obscures rather than clarifies what is required. Environmental problems are both …

If O'Riordan is claiming that it is good if some scientists use their science to address certain types of problems which are of immediate need, then there is nothing new or interesting being suggested. However I fear that what is being suggested is that science which investigates problems which are not at the top of …

Your report on Scientists for Global Responsibility (In Brief, 25 January) gives perhaps a false impression of the backdrop to its formation. It is not the case that Scientists for Global Responsibility has been formed because environmental concerns are 'capturing the moral high ground from the prevention of nuclear armageddon'. Whilst the prospect of imminent …

I was very interested in the articles by and about Margaret Boden and her work ('The thinking woman's guide to the mind' and 'The mind of a very special machine', 18 January). However, I was surprised at the statement that her book 'Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man' was consciously antisexist, given both the title and …

The article on the massive Permo-Triassic extinction ('The day the world nearly died', 25 January) and the continuing research into the almost equally severe Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary extinction some 200 million years later, should cause extreme anguish both to secular followers of James Lovelock's Gaian hypothesis, and to other believers, in that it seems to play …

So Barry Fox is 'exasperated with casual requests for information' (Forum, 25 January). He should be so lucky! One of my colleagues, a consultant in infectious diseases, once received a letter from a student: 'Please could you tell me all you know about infection. I enclose a stamped addressed postcard for your reply.' Philip Welsby …

Beth Grear's letter raises an interesting subject - what exactly do microwaves do to water (Letters, 1 February)? After trying to unsuccessfully grow some copper sulphate crystals with our children, and having only obtained a cluster of hundreds of small crystals around the seed crystal, I handed over the problem to my wife (ex science …

The article 'Piecing together the Pacific' by Garry Davidson (18 January) mentions that the 750 to 700 million year old Precambrian supercontinent is unnamed. This is not so; Dianna McMenamin and I named it Rodinia in our book The Emergence of Animals: The Cambrian Breakthrough (1990, Columbia University Press). The Moores-Dalziel reconstruction of Rodinia is …