Letters archive

Your fascinating article on the recently discovered "membrane nanotubes" linking cells (15 November, p 43) immediately led me to a potentially novel hypothesis: perhaps these structures are involved in the generation of consciousness. There are two rather common medical phenomena that are still somewhat mysterious, which this idea may help explain. The first is concussion. …

You unearth some problems with modern science fiction (15 November, p 5) . Future fiction it is, science it ain't, often – if ever sci-fi was based on science, which is debatable. Dominated by dystopias in the mould of the likes of Blade Runner , this is a genre in danger of burning itself out. …

Adam Hockenberry rightly asks why we should continue to use the massive and centralised approach to renewable energy rather than diffuse and small systems (22 November, p 24) . The answer is that both government and the power industry need these systems to control and profit from our energy use. Self-sufficiency can never be a …

Last year David Cohen reported that "zinc could be used up by 2037" (26 May 2007, p 34) . You later introduced Mark Buchanan's commentary on the recent misery created by the excessive use of credit/leverage within the free market system by saying: "Forget textbook economics, the answer lies elsewhere" (19 July, p 32) . …

On the theory that every little bit helps in trying to close the US oil-for-fuel gap, I suggest we collect the fat obtained from obesity-reducing lipectomies and convert it into biofuel. The idea is a bit icky and weird, I know, but I find the subject does make for some fascinating conversations: on what kind …

I am terrified by Clare Wilson saying an "intelligent and well-informed" gay man "sometimes" has unsafe sex (22 November, p 40) . Is that not a contradiction? I do not believe that this kind of behaviour is "not that unusual". The editor writes: • Several surveys have shown that a substantial minority of gay men …

Bernhard Hommel found a difference between atheists and adherents of the neocalvinist variety of Protestantism in their speed of identifying small shapes within a larger one (22 November, p 18) . You report his speculation – unsubstantiated – that the neocalvinists were faster because they were used to separating out influences of education, government and …

The hypothesis that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can be explained by the brain's oversensitivity to stimuli is attractive for many reasons (20 September, p 34) . It focuses the investigation of causes, explains some of the most common features in a way that makes them predictable, and leads to possible treatment or management options. I …

My interest in your article on the fine line between speech and song (8 November, p 17) was enriched because I had noticed the inverse transition when learning Mandarin Chinese. My classmates and I carefully sang the tones that contribute to the meaning of this language, but our Chinese instructor, while clearly forming the same …

When my brain is "resting" it isn't only day-dreaming (8 November, p 28) . It is solving problems. I read through the cryptic crossword clues, doing the odd one. I put the paper down and do something else. When I pick it up again, my brain has solved some of the clues with no conscious …

David Wilks asked whether the nature of our TV-watching affects our dreams (29 November, p 24) . When I was learning website design and practising for hours every day, I used to dream in HTML. That is, I used to write paragraph breaks, image insertion, links and so forth as the dream went along – …

• Peter Barnes's explanation of why underfilm corrosion lines do not meet should have read: "The potential at the head of a filament would be neutralised were it to encounter the tail of a different filament, so the only way it can propagate is to change direction" (The Last Word, 3 December) . • We …

Henry Nicholls struggles with the question of whether animals ponder the past or contemplate the future (1 November, p 32) . Do dogs, for example, reconstruct past events in their minds or imagine themselves in future scenarios? Of course they do. Otherwise, what are we to make of their dreams? When Rover is lying there, …

Why does Marc Kramis think that excessive concentration of power leads to more variables and problems than leaving spending decisions to the individual whims of the multitude (15 November 2008, p 25) ? Of course, greater power can lead to greater abuses, but this is because of simplification rather than the reverse; legislatures exist to …

Feedback refers to "a small kitsch model of a deer" on a cake made to celebrate the firing-up of the LHC, and reports the maker saying it "is, of course, a Higgs boson" (18 October) . It occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, it's actually the even rarer Hoggs bison, and that this may …

As a life-long sci-fi fan, I enjoyed your article on the genre (15 November, p 46) , especially as I have just started one of the recognised great sci-fi stories for the first time – Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is A Harsh Mistress . I am not surprised to see that he identifies the …