Letters archive

For each of the human traits discussed in your article "10 Mysteries of you" (8 August, p 28) , the authors imply that if one explanation is correct, the others must be false. In the real world, however, no one selective pressure acts on a trait in isolation. Rather, a multitude of collaborative, conflicting and …

Bob Holmes warns us that the second wave of a pandemic flu outbreak tends to be worse than the first (8 August, p 40) . The most likely explanation for this increased severity is the near certainty that there will be a reassortment of genes between a mild pandemic strain of the virus and some …

In a sidebar to her article on gorillas, Stephanie Pain tells us of the disastrous repercussions for these primates of cellphone production: "If you must have a new , then recycle the old one to reduce demand for coltan... Illegal mining of coltan ore is partly responsible for the plummeting number of eastern lowland gorillas …

In his article on tuna stocks, James Joseph provides good figures for their status, correctly highlighting bluefin tuna as being of greatest concern (1 August, p 22) . He goes on to say that three tuna stocks are at risk, one is recovering, one is slightly at risk and another may recover. As conservation initiatives …

Andrew Stiller complains that your editors and contributors are harming New Scientist 's reputation by taking cold fusion seriously (8 August, p 24) . I have to defend your approach. Cold fusion may be on the fringe of science and it may be extremely unlikely ever to work at all, let alone as a viable …

Although like John Cooke I am proud to be a pedant (8 August, p 25) , I have no problem with James Dyson's use of the phrase "quantum leap" (11 July, p 20) to imply a large progressive step. The novel aspect of a quantum of energy, when the concept was introduced to physics just …

I would like to believe that you weren't intentionally ironic when you illustrated George Marshall's "Are you a believer?" article on climate change with an ostrich with its head in a planet of sand (25 July, p 24) . This aspersion on the bird's survival skills has been well publicised as being false, yet it …

• Nearly two years ago, in an article on early human migrations (27 October 2007, p 36) , we mislabelled the Wally's Beach archaeological site as being in the US, when its position on our map correctly shows it to be north of the border in Canada. • Serguei Komissarov, whose calculations on gamma-ray bursts …