Letters archive

Working at a nuclear research centre as I do, I found Justin Mullins's article on seasonal variations in radioactive decay most intriguing (27 June, p 42) . I remember a previous New Scientist article (21 October 2006, p 36) reporting that Claus Rolfs and colleagues had shown they could modify the radioactive decay of certain …

John Horgan argues that war is not an innate part of human nature, and discusses the possibility that the human race is heading towards a more peaceful way of living (4 July, p 38) . However, he does not consider the function of war in society. It is not enough to look at the cost …

Richard Wiseman reported a negative result from his Twitter experiment on remote vision (13 June, p 23) . The experiment involved Wiseman going to a location and asking participants to choose one of five photos that matched their intuition of his surroundings. This leaves much room for uncontrolled variables, such as the choice of the …

In your interview with James Dyson he argues that without the protection afforded by patents inventors would not invent (11 July, p 20) . However, the evidence suggests that patents can instead block invention. The Wright brothers, who were made so much of in the Dyson interview, in their attempts to protect their patent rights …

In common with other observers, most of your correspondents seem to agree that C. P. Snow's "two cultures" gap is now wider than ever ( 2 May, p 26 , and subsequent letters 30 May, p 20 , 20 June, p 25 and 27 June, p 27 ). Yet there are recent signs of convergence, …

Mark Brandon writes that there is no evidence people ever believed the Earth is flat (27 June, p 27) . In fact, Christians believed it for centuries. The book of Genesis states that God created the sky in the form of an inverted bowl holding a mass of water above the flat Earth. Scientists already …

You report that sea-level rises of up to 5 metres are possible within 300 years (4 July, p 28) . This timescale is well within the half-lives of many of the elements in radioactive waste, yet all the locations for nuclear new-builds that I have seen mooted are in low-lying coastal locations, and all would …

When discussing the female prostate, Elaine Morgan draws a comparison between it and human male nipples, which she describes as "functionless" analogues of the female version (4 July, p 24) . This fails to take male sexual function into account. Male nipples do not have the child-rearing function of female nipples, but to brand them …

I was amused by Feedback's theory, prompted by cinematic depictions of tackle-free dinosaurs, that their extinction resulted from a physical inability to procreate (20 June) . I'm no expert, but modern reptiles generally seem to keep their genitalia and cloacal opening tucked well out of harm's way – think of the complications for snakes if …

• In a lead-acid battery, it is the sulphate ions that are transferred between the electrolyte and the electrodes, not the lead as we said (18 July, p 42)