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16 May 2007
From David Clarke
Tony Fogarty suggests that to realise the efficiency gains of combined heat and power energy-generation, all new power stations should be CHP stations (28 April, p 20). This is one of those superficially attractive ideas that quickly sours when practicalities are taken into account. Although CHP is justified where suitable heat generation is adjacent to …
16 May 2007
From Tim Marchant, School of Mathematics, University of Wollongong
Feedback mentions a sign in the maths and physics building at the University of Tasmania reading "You are on level 2. Level 3 is one floor up" (21 April). This information appears to be necessary – for students at least. You would be surprised how many university students pester you with questions like "Where is …
16 May 2007
• On the graph of atmospheric oxygen levels accompanying the article "Breath of Life" (28 April, p 40) the Permian extinction was marked as a minor extinction rather than major mass extinction. • We incorrectly said that Doug Cartlidge works for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (28 April, p 34). He is executive director …
16 May 2007
From Marco Overdale
Roger James asks for a "theoretically conceivable or possible observation" that would convince us that "global warming is not caused by carbon dioxide emissions from human activity" (14 April, p 22). Here's a suggestion for the sceptics. How about we eliminate emissions based on human activity, or at least reduce them down to some reasonable …
16 May 2007
From Sadie Williams
Michael Pavitt asks what happens when a quantum event causes a viscous fluid to creep, or not. That is, if it is observed to have flowed, was it creeping all along (14 April, p 22)? The answer is that the observation determines not only "what is" but also "what was". It determines the unobserved past …
16 May 2007
From John Race
From time to time you report connections between genes and obesity (21 April, p 16, for example). But surely the genome of the UK population can't have changed that dramatically in the short period – 50 years – of the obesity boom. It would seem much more likely that there is some new dietary, environmental …
16 May 2007
From Gareth Roberts
In his feature, "The universe before ours", David Shiga suggests that one day we may be able to answer the question "why is there anything at all instead of nothing?" (28 April, p 28). This is more than optimistic: the question is a priori unanswerable. By definition, there cannot have been anything before everything that …
16 May 2007
From Martin Durkin
Alan Thorpe, attacking my film The Great Global Warming Swindle , tells us not to "play games with the evidence" (17 March, p 24). Right ho. Let's not. He says: "There is no question that the more CO 2 there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet becomes." Perhaps Thorpe is too young to …
16 May 2007
From Colin MacLeod
Discussing how to protect underwater structures from terrorists, Chris Cantell claims Westminster International's diver detection system is unlikely to harm marine mammals because it can correctly identify a target on 98 out of 100 occasions (28 April, p 34). This sounds great, but to a marine biologist with a knowledge of marine mammal distribution, this …
16 May 2007
From Linda Shields, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull
Weighing babies has long been used as an indicator of healthy development (28 April, p 6). The almost mandatory visit by mothers and infants to the infant welfare nurse or health visitor is part of the culture of having children. It is good to see solid evidence that the growth charts are flawed in favour …
Issue no. 2604 published 19 May 2007
