Letters archive

Susan Greenfield's analysis of women in science (30 November, p 23) sounded hauntingly familiar. As a man who dislikes and tries to avoid personal machismo, I have found that my career has suffered in similar ways. I have at times been pigeon-holed, shut out because someone else fought dirty, and passed over because of my …

We read your story about over-the-counter gene tests with initial interest that was followed by a sense of despondency at the misleading and selective nature of its facts and reporting (23 November, p 42) . There is a well-founded molecular and chemical basis to our knowledge of the role of nutrients in body chemistry, a …

• We agree the new study by David Wald and others adds weight to the theory that raised homocysteine levels contribute to heart disease. It was omitted from the feature because it wasn't published in time. But these findings are a long way from demonstrating the value of Sciona's test for the MTHFR mutation. If …

Your report of a move in New Zealand toward the acceptance of fur from pest species is welcome news (14 December, p 13) . I hope it achieves fruition and is emulated elsewhere. In Australia foxes are feral pests that take a huge toll on native wildlife, and are a potential vector for disastrous exotic …

The diagram in the article about a test to identify tumours that have the ability to spread is captioned "Chances of cancer recurring after having a prostate cancer removed %" and shows a red line that increases stepwise to 60 per cent over 50 months (14 December, p 19) . This is obviously wrong as …

The views of Britain's Food Standards Agency are becoming legendary (7 December, p 8) . The FSA has branded Europe's plans for tough laws on labelling genetically modified foods a "cheat's charter". Its rationale goes like this: products are devoid of any detectable GM material; trading standards would have to rely on paper trails documenting …

Although Don Gilmour's invention of an electronically self-tuning piano has merit, I shudder to think of the amount of energy that would be wasted if it catches on (7 December, p 20) . The idea of every one of the thousands of new pianos being sold consuming 500 to 600 watts of electricity every time …

Not everyone is as considerate of centenarians as the Chemistry & Industry subscription people (Feedback, 7 December) . In the winter 2002 edition of the Vegetarian Society magazine, there was an article about a Greek man who found himself removed from the electoral roll, as it was thought anyone born before 1890 must now be …

Feedback notes that in computer terminology a collection of forests is called a blob, and wonders what a collection of blobs would be called (14 December) . How about a Seurat?

Your article should surprise nobody in the scientific community. I have obtained papers cited in many journal articles, only to find that the authors had clearly not read the paper, as nothing about it was relevant, despite a title that sounded as if it would be. Indeed, certain friends mock me for the effort I …

This is not necessarily about sloppiness, though I am sure it is a factor. Anyone who has tried to get hold of a list of articles will realise just how difficult it is to obtain some of them. Establishments rarely hold old or obscure journals, and ordering copies can be costly, especially for cash-strapped institutions. …

The article on the Bhopal disaster is incorrect in many important respects (7 December, p 6) . First, the evidence is not "fresh". The documents referenced very likely have been in the hands of the Indian government for many years, and none contains information contradicting the facts as they have been long expressed by Union …

Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury estimate that 78 per cent of cited academic papers were not actually read by the citing article's author (14 December, p 12) . This is surely an overestimate. It often happens that when authors compile their citation list, a reference to a paper they wish to cite will be closer …