Letters archive

The article on the veil of secrecy surrounding peer review of research grants and scientific research publications made a case for reviewers to come public (Forum, 11 February). Another issue is the anonymity of the applicants for grants and publications. The opinion of the reviewer is very much influenced by the academic standing of the …

There were a number of inaccuracies in Andy Coghlan's article on patents for human genes (Focus, 11 February). The incomplete picture given would lead a reader without experience in the field to believe, erroneously, that very broad patents can be granted without a full description of the whole breadth of the invention, and that there …

The explosive disintegration of toughened glass "teardrops" prepared by water-quenching from the melt ("Why do teardrops explode?", 11 February) is related mechanistically to a little-known but significant hazard to laboratory workers who use fume cupboards. Many fume cupboards have vertically opening (sash) doors that consist of a single sheet of toughened glass. Such glass is …

With reference to Tam Dalyell's column (11 February), the sentence "When John met his uncle in the street he took off his hat" is in fact capable of many more than six meanings without even considering doubts about the identity of John. The first pronoun can mean John or some third party and the other …

I see from Letters (4 February) that there is a race on to claim to be the first to have used a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study snowflakes. The Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1970, vol 96, p 257, shows SEM images obtained by me in 1969. Note, however, that these are images …

Oh, shame on John Gribbin! In his review of The Ascent of Wonder (11 February) he mentions a Tom Godwin story (The Cold Equations, in fact), reminds us that the spaceship in it is on a mercy mission (carrying urgently needed medical supplies to a scientific mission based on a little-known planet) and then blows …

I was interested in A. S. Robertson's ideas about skin acne in teenagers (Letters, 11 February). It reminded me of an article in New Scientist about teenagers which stated, if I remember correctly, that in human societies it is important for sexually mature adolescents to be able to experiment and learn their roles in adult …

Your article on "waving goodbye" to discoloured fruit (Technology, 21 January) reminds me that my mother, among others I know of, had a homely way of preventing the discolouring of freshly sliced or grated pome: it was to sprinkle the newly cut fruit with lemon juice. Our fruit salads usually included cut-up orange pieces as …

Your amusing letters about "p'ubbliqs pea king" (14 January and 11 February) unlocked a childhood memory for me: an uncle wrote the following and bade me sing it to him: Où est n'a beau dit, Qui sa beau dit, Guy n'a beau dit-elle? I couldn't sing it as I didn't know the tune, but as …

Write to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, King's Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS, or fax to 0171 261 6464. Please include a daytime telephone number, and cite the date of the articles mentioned. We reserve the right to edit longer letters. Your letters may also be published in New Scientist newsletters.

Wood happens to be a fairly good biomass fuel, since it can be burnt in the form of chips in a power station (Letters, 11 February), and can also be fermented to make ethanol and methanol, which would be both more efficient and more "green" as a car fuel than electricity. However, trees take a …

Your correspondent T. Robertson argues that the higher apparent efficiency of transport driven by internal combustion engines compared with the electrical alternatives means that combustion engined vehicles have a lower environmental impact (Letters, 11 February). This argument is regularly advanced by motoring interest groups to justify perpetuation of the status quo. It is false in …

I manage an international development group for a European paint manufacturer. The emission of volatile organic compounds has been a subject of close scrutiny, and we have spent a great deal of time working on the European Commission's numerous draft documents of the Emissions to Air directive. I therefore found the statement, "solvents, such as …

Ross Firestone's letter (18 February) portraying wolves as "dangerous and unpredictable predators" made some of the usual errors and assumptions which have done so much to disrupt the work of concerned conservationists over the last few decades. It is interesting that, despite the proximity of wolves and humans in North America (particularly Minnesota), Firestone is …

In his fascinating article "Are you lonesome tonight?" (11 February), Robin Dunbar calls the correlation between married couples in the relative length of the joints of the fingers bizarre. But what do courting couples do at every opportunity except hold hands? Then there is the importance we like to attach to a handshake. Perhaps a …