Letters archive

With regards to your recent article, 'Is there a radio link to gamma-ray bursters?' (New Scientist, Science, 23 October), you may be interested to know that there is a similar, but more direct approach to the problem of measuring the distance scale of gamma-ray bursts. In the soft X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum (energies …

As an acknowledged world leader in the field of whisky consumption, and having spent a few years studying geese in various parts of the globe, I must write to take issue with your piece about graylag geese threatening Scotland's whisky industry (Feedback, 23 October). Firstly, Icelandic-nesting greylag geese come to Britain for the winter, and …

In the item 'Oxford goes electric without flywheels' (Technology, 30 October), Oliver Tickell and his informant seem to have been unaware of the Gyrobuses built by the Oerlikon company. The first one was tested in December 1950 in Aarau, in Switzerland. Two more ran for a number of years in the Swiss town of Yverdon …

The flywheel energy store in your article on Oxford's electric buses seems to be very underrated to only store one kilowatt hour. A spin stressed hoop of carbon fibre reinforced resin of a density of 2300 kilograms per cubic metre and tensile strength of 1.5 times 1010 newtons per square metre could store a maximum …

Roy Collins asks 'Why do women last longer than men?' (Forum, 23 October)? He claims that the 'gender gap . . . is very new, a 20th-century phenomenon'. His assumptions as to the novelty of the present century in this respect are false. In Sweden in the late 18th century women had a 10 per …

If one actually looks at X and Y chromosomes, it is plainly obvious that the so-called Y chromosome is actually an X chromosome with one of its 'legs' missing. The fact of parthenogenesis indicates that the natural form of all species is female. Males exist merely so that females can reproduce themselves. Men are, in …

Fred Pearce, in his article 'Wrong kind of rain fools warning system' (This Week, 23 October), states quite incorrectly that the Meteorological Office's Frontiers system failed to provide the National Rivers Authority with adequate warning of the recent severe rainfall that caused flooding in London and the South East. The main function of Frontiers is …

Your Comment (2 October) serves to discourage the endeavours of the World Health Organization to advance the wellbeing of people in countries such as Albania, Bosnia, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - WHO member states that are far from being the 'rich nations' by which you characterise the WHO's …