Letters archive

Judging by the number of reports in New Scientist of research into technologies that are likely to worsen global warming, the adverts for gas-guzzling cars that adorn your pages, and the carbon footprint of many of the global warming researchers as described in George Marshall's article (25 July, p 24) , not many of the …

Bijal Trivedi explains how the method of preparation and condition of the food we eat makes a big difference to the number of calories available to the body (18 July, p 30) . Like many other commentators on this subject, however, she fails to consider the related possibility that all digestive systems may not be …

In his article on invertebrates' rights, Peter Fraser referred to research into hermit crabs that purported to show they feel and remember pain (11 July, p 24) . I am a langoustine fisherman, and my experience of langoustine behaviour over the past 30 years suggests that they don't feel pain. Pain presumably evolves as a …

Fern Elsdon-Baker criticises Richard Dawkins's dogmatic approach to evolution and his coining of rigid metaphors for the processes involved (18 July, p 24) . The misuse of metaphors in evolutionary theory goes back to Charles Darwin himself. He used Herbert Spencer's "struggle for survival" in a late edition of On the Origin of Species , …

Stephen Battersby's article on the disputed Iranian election results seemed rather ideological for a publication that claims to be about science, and written for scientists (27 June, p 10) . The mainstream media habitually decides its attitude towards a country by applying the rule: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the enemy …

• We should have stated that artist Rosamond Purcell recreated Ole Worm's Wormianum as pictured in "Enigma of the 23-year-old baby" (25 July, p 46) . • Feedback's pick-out contributor is called Lynton Challoner, not Challenger as we printed (1 August) . • The resolution to change the planetary status of Pluto when it passes …