Letters archive

Your article on synthetic wheats suggested that one way to avoid the genetically modified label for new strains was to double the chromosome numbers of infertile triploid plants (three chromosomes) by treating them with the chemical colchicine (11 February, p 8). I'm afraid that, as someone who has led UK research teams that produced polyploid …

One of the many joys of reading New Scientist is the juxtaposition of articles. "The parched planet", 25 February, p 33, discussed the huge amount of water required to produce various foods, such as 20,000 litres for 1 kilo of coffee. This was followed by "Green gold" (p 37) that discussed farming algae to produce …

Robert Matthews raises the notion that a better understanding of risk will win over opponents of incinerators in their communities (18 February, p 24). Human beings routinely make "illogical" decisions and happily undertake risky activities. We drive cars despite the risk because most of us believe we are better-than-average drivers and can control the risk. …

How about showing the full moon when you talk about the full moon? Your report falls into the same trap as numerous others have before it (18 February, p 22). The moon is shown here from a completely different point of view from the one we always have from Earth – and the "man in …

Jeff Hecht's article on vanishing deltas draws attention to important concepts regarding the vulnerability of life on river deltas (18 February, p 8). Unfortunately it confuses plausible speculation with actual evidence. Studies indicate that parts of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta are subsiding naturally at a few millimetres per year, and that land reclamation has adversely affected …

The principle of health forecasting is indeed exciting (11 February, p 44). But the parameters that have to be taken into consideration are numerous and vary widely by region: high relative atmospheric humidity, for instance, is not common in temperate climates. Furthermore, for many people who are susceptible to one ailment or another, it is …

The graphic "The warming world" seems odd (18 February, p 10). The 0 °C line grazes the highest historic temperatures since the year 800, rather than showing the average. This appears to show that the oft-quoted 0.6 °C rise relates to those high temperatures rather than the mean. The rise from the mean would be …

The article on the 25-hour day was fascinating (4 February, p 34). It would be interesting to see what those researching the perception of time could discover from people who speak languages that handle time very differently from Indo-European languages. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf reported back in 1940 that speakers of different languages conceptualise …

Teaspoons, connected with odd socks or faeries (Feedback, 25 February)? Pah! Or Pshaw! The apparent disappearance of teaspoons has a much simpler explanation. They mutate into dessert spoons. There is never a shortage of dessert spoons – in fact, we usually use them for stirring tea. Careful observation will reveal the occasional sudden appearance of …

You got the message of the pills wrong on your cover of the 18 February issue if you meant to conjure up The Matrix . You have a red pill with "sleep" written on it. But when Morpheus offers the pills to Neo, the blue pill is the one that puts you back to sleep, …

• The politically appointed NASA public affairs officer who resigned over fudging his résumé, after suggestions that he had tried to suppress evidence for global warming, is George Deutsch, not David (25 February, p 7) • In our report on tropical storm threats to river deltas (18 February, p 8), we misidentified the Chinese river …

I am an enormous admirer of Freeman Dyson. However, I think his reasoning by analogy has missed the mark entirely (11 February, p 36). Yes, computers have evolved to the point where anyone can design nuclear weapons or novel organisms. But have you ever tried to build a nuclear weapon at home? It is not …