Letters archive

Helen Pilcher highlights the strength of the nocebo effect, in which negative expectations can produce harmful effects (16 May, p 30) . A study of the language used in the Milton model of hypnosis could help doctors who wonder how to inform patients of potential side effects without inadvertently suggesting that they acquire them. If …

David Allen Green suggests that there is an increasing trend towards complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners threatening libel action against those who criticise them (16 May, p 24) . I am unaware of anybody prior to the chiropractors he describes taking this course of action in the UK. Furthermore, as a medically qualified researcher …

Out-of-body experience (OBE) is an intriguing and controversial topic on which there are only a handful of publications. In their letter (11 April, p 22) , Eric Altschuler and Vilayanur Ramachandran claim that their 2007 paper ( Perception , vol 36, p 632 ) was the "first to report a method to perceive being outside …

If a severe climatic or violent event were to take out several large generators, for example the Severn barrage in the UK (18 April, p 32) , a considerable number of buildings would cease to function. If every building generated its own electricity, it is likely many of them would still be running after such …

Could it be that there is an anti-universe and that it existed, or exists, before our universe? It might explain where all the antimatter is (25 April, p 36) . Perhaps the big bang created two universes: ours which goes forward in time, and an anti-universe going backwards in time. Of course, from the perspective …

Hazel Muir reports that those who speak tonal languages are more likely to have perfect pitch (2 May, p 10) . I do not have perfect pitch myself, but as a doctor and an organist I have long been fascinated by its mechanism. It is difficult to imagine the brain having a standard pitch reference, …

I won't try to represent Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's quantum physics, but I take issue with Amanda Gefter's contention that he didn't become famous until the Beatles got involved with him (18 April, p 46) . In fact, he started touring the world in 1958 and didn't meet the Beatles until 1967. The Beatles had little …

The recent flurry of letters about smoking regulations in various countries prompted me to comment on the lunacy that can sometimes result from the application of poorly thought-out rules ( 18 April, p 24 , and 2 May, p 24 ). In Dutch coffee shops, where marijuana can be purchased without risking legal penalty, new …

I found the article "Seeing with sound" by Daniel Kish (11 April, p 31) inspiring. Thank you for including it in New Scientist . I was, however, struck by the sentence "What is it like to 'see' the world using sonar?" beneath the headline. It reminded me of a similar construction that appeared in the …

The feature on ways of encouraging creativity (9 May, p 32) was interesting, but there was one glaring omission – love, especially the unrequited kind.

There were excellent illustrations in your article on the multiverse (2 May, p 35) . Does the choice of bubble wrap illustrate the hills and valleys of the multiverse? I wondered why the bubbles were all deflated – and then asked myself, who had all the fun? Is there perhaps one unique inflated bubble somewhere …