Letters archive

Kirk Smith does a great job of explaining the importance of addressing emissions of all greenhouse gases rather than focusing exclusively on carbon dioxide (27 June, p 24) . According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization , rice produces 19 per cent of global calories for its 34 megatonnes of methane, while ruminants …

Bennett Daviss reported on how the OpenFlow system can be used to reprogram routers remotely, which would protect against network collapses due to trawlers cutting cables or thieves stealing submarine lines (27 June, p 38) . However, the system could open the internet to new vulnerabilities. Until now, the reliance on hard-wired programming in routers …

I do not think that your editors and contributors fully understand the damage you are doing to your reputation by continuing to take "cold fusion" seriously, as your interview with cold fusion investigator Martin Fleischmann appears to (18 July, p 28) . The problem with the idea is not that it violates established principles of …

In his article on forecasting oceanic waves, Rick Lovett says that surfers don't know why waves come in groups of different sizes (27 June, p 46) . I spent eight years in the merchant navy, navigating tankers and survey ships around the world. It was quite common to have two swells coming from different directions, …

Peter Eckersley argues, that rather than cling to the old model of scarcity and strict copyright laws, we need to refocus on disseminating knowledge (27 June, p 28) . He suggests that record labels switch to "licences that allow unlimited, restriction-free file sharing in exchange for flat fees". Subscription-based music download services such as this …

In your interview with James Dyson, he is quoted as saying: "We wanted a quantum leap, not just tiny changes..." (11 July, p 20) . I guess that we pedants must accept we have lost this battle.

Peter Household questions whether evolution is better described as a law or a theory (13 June, p 24) . Evolution will occur in any system that involves replication, variation and selection, regardless of whether the system is biological, mechanical or software. It is as inevitable as the laws of thermodynamics and is of the same …

• The total costs for the purchase and ongoing management of land in Sabah, Malaysia, that would link fragments of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary is over $566,000, double what we stated (25 July, p 8) , and negotiations to buy it are not yet complete. • The US Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate wishes to make …