Letters archive

Simon Baron-Cohen complains that the media trumpeted the imminence of prenatal testing for autism based on links to prenatal testosterone levels, when in fact his study did not support such conclusions (28 March, p 26) . However, his own description of the research may show why this error happened. He insists that the traits he …

Caroline Williams reassures us that the placenta does a pretty good, if imperfect, job of protecting the fetus from unwanted substances, and cites a few cases where it fails (4 April, p 26) . In fact, this is quite an underestimate of the failure. In 2005 the US Environmental Working Group commissioned a study of …

In his review of Thomas Metzinger's The Ego Tunnel, Owen Flanagan includes Buddha in his list of figures who "endorsed" the idea that there is no self (21 March, p 44) . This is somewhat simplistic. Sanskrit, the language spoken by Buddha in its variant form, Pali, has several terms that could translate into English …

Chris Callaghan wonders whether it is the anaesthetic used in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) that is responsible for any beneficial effects the treatment may have (21 March, p 23) . ECT has long been controversial. As a psychiatrist I can attest that its benefits are not "occasional": ECT is the most effective antidepressant treatment we know. …

According to your article "Sea level rising faster", recent measurements show the sea level rise since 1993 to be 3 millimetres per year (14 March, p 7) . The UK Defence Standard on body size from 1997 quotes an increase in average stature for Australians and Dutch of 1.3 mm a year for men and …

Charles Shepherd asks for an objective position to be taken on the aetiology of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) (4 April, p 22) . Why are those who support ME reluctant to accept a psychological basis in some cases? In my experience, the response from a patient to such a suggestion is either to say "I'm not …

You report that auditory rivalry was discovered in 2006 in France (14 March, p 34) but this idea has been around for at least a decade. In 1994, during an Open University tutorial at Durham University in the UK, my professor conducted an experiment showing that sounds could be heard in two different ways. He …

With regard to your recent article on tactile illusions (14 March, p 33) , I think I may have been the first to notice the possibility of the transfer of tactile experiences from one part of the visual field to another. In order to show how qualia (inner sensory experiences) have no given connection with …

I found "That freaky feeling" very interesting (14 March, p 33) . Though I did not try any of the tactile illusions on myself, I discovered that you had arranged for readers to get a demonstration of a different kind of illusion. For a couple of minutes after reading item 7, which is printed in …

Tracy Chandler (28 March, p 24) says that the way to ensure that your children don't starve to death is not to have so many. Unfortunately, this will not work. The way to ensure that your children don't starve to death is to make sure everyone else doesn't have so many. This is the epitome …

• The Dark Energy Survey will catalogue 2000 supernovae that exploded in the last 7 billion years (11 April, p 6) . • Sunlight provides the Earth with 120,000 terajoules per second of power, not terawatts as we stated (4 April, p 24) . • In a story on Alzheimer's, we misspelled the name of …