Letters archive

Modern Problems in Science is an improvisational show, where three American masters, Dick Costolo, Rich Fulcher and Phil Granchi, prove ridiculous hypotheses provided by the audience, such as Chairs are Weightless, Broccoli causes Cancer and John, Paul, George and Ringo are the Fundamental Units of the Genetic Code. To quote from the show's publicity, "Ask …

Having read David Auerbach's article on the "Mpemba effect" (American Journal of Physics, vol 63, p 882, 1995: the effect is that initially hot water, or ice cream solution, may "freeze quicker" than cold) and the note and letters on the same subject in New Scientist (Science, p 22, and The Last Word, 2 December …

I would like to correct the ideas of martial arts perceived by Robert Kennan (Letters, 24 February, p 52). It is true that in many martial arts the risk of brain damage is reduced as the whole body is used as a target, not just the head and torso. But many styles allow kicking to …

Bill McColl is already behind the times when he says "Before the end of 1996 you'll even be able to buy multiprocessor PCs". ("Truly, madly, deeply parallel", 24 February, p 36). It has already been possible for more than a year to buy these. There is even a choice. You can buy desktop machines which …

Presumably Feedback is too young to remember the days when "cut and paste" editing involved using a pair of scissors. Otherwise you would have realised that the error in the UAP advert (2 March, p 84) was not a spelling mistake, but a pasting mistake.

I awaited with some interest your article on turbines and pumps ("Blades at the cutting edge", 24 February). I was staggered by the disparaging reference to William Hawthorne, described as "an engineer at the University of Cambridge". He was at that time Professor of Thermodynamics, for heaven's sake, specialising in that subject's application to gas …

I was intrigued by Marina Earwood's letter (Letters, 24 February, p 52) where she points out that the digit 6 in 1461 was changed (inadvertently no doubt) to 9 giving 1491. This is uncannily like a problem I suffer on an almost day-to-day basis. My work number is almost exactly the same as another totally …

With reference to the four members of staff of Gloster Aircraft with "bird" surnames (Feedback, 27 January, p 96), the team leader, Harry Peacock (who later worked for me in the department of science at North Gloucestershire College of Technology in Cheltenham) was a flutter engineer.

I read with interest "If only they could think" (13 January, p 32) by Gary Flood. I must say that some of the positions reported seemed to have missed the essence of the remarks made by Pat Hayes and Kenneth Ford. As I see it, the Hayes/Ford position is simply that the Turing test is …

Presumably chemical pollutants as well as radon would be concentrated near high-tension cables (This Week 17 February, p 4). Some people living near high-voltage power lines have reported headaches and other minor health problems. Organic compounds and smoke particles from vehicle exhausts for example, if concentrated by electrical fields might explain this. Furthermore, high-tension cables …

It was fascinating to be informed by the national press, TV radio and by New Scientist (This Week, 17 February, p 5) of the presence of a small snail, Vertigo moulinsiana, in the way of the newsworthy Newbury bypass. What was singularly lacking in all the accounts that I saw was an objective assessment of …

We, at the Embassy of the Republic of China on Taiwan in St George's Grenada, are very disappointed to learn that the inference could be drawn from an article in your prestigious magazine. The article "Stowaway wrecks island's crops" by Fred Pearce (This Week, 17 January, p 9) states: "Alleged by some to have arrived …

In recent years, we have seen a great deal of concern emerging about the effects of potentially oestrogenic pollutants on the environment. One group of materials particularly singled out as undesirable are the ethoxylated alkylphenols. This group includes nonoxinol-9, the spermicidal surfactant found in almost all condoms. Given the understandable concern regarding this molecule's potential …

I read the article "Satellite on a string rides again" (Technology, 17 February, p 23) and I cannot see how towing a cable through the Earth's magnetic field can work usefully. Am I missing something here? It seems to me that this is no more than an exotic dynamo. Surely, therefore, if you take current …