Letters archive

Hugh McLachlan rightly points out some logical flaws in philosopher David Hume's arguments regarding miracles, but introduces some others in turn (8 August, p 26) . McLachlan writes: "'Laws' that appear firmly established are often overturned, yet we do not need to argue that a miracle must have occurred... the rational thing is to abandon …

E. O. Wilson calls for "an effort along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to protect species" (22 August, p 23) . The UN Environment Programme has already proposed an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to discuss improving biodiversity protection. If there were two processes in development, the effort …

Kirk Smith's reply to Graham Faichney's well-reasoned letter about the place of biogenic methane in the carbon cycle, and hence its diminished impact on climate change misses some important points (8 August, p 24) . Wetlands are being drained for farming, thereby permanently removing large sources of methane. Loss of carbon to the atmosphere from …

W. Brian Arthur's article on the evolution of technology fails to pay attention to what goes on inside inventors' heads (22 August, p 26) . A frantic evolution of ideas occurs that no one sees and that even the inventor may be unaware of. To onlookers it may seem that a technology appears fully formed, …

As Stephen Battersby's article shows, debate continues within the astronomical community over the status of Pluto and many other significant celestial bodies in the solar system (25 July, p 44) . This is not surprising when the term "planet" is so ill-defined. Clear definitions enable us to talk the same scientific language. As more extrasolar …

I am disappointed by Noel Sharkey's dismissal of Hans Moravec's and Ray Kurzweil's assertions that computers will eventually overtake the human brain in intelligence as "just fairy tales" (29 August, p 28) . There is plenty of evidence that new properties emerge when systems reach a certain complexity, and it can be difficult to predict …

Questions on the safety of modern aircraft raised in your report on the loss of an airliner in the mid-Atlantic on 1 June may never be answered if the plane's "black box" flight recorders cannot be found (13 June, p 19) . The drawback of the current system of on-board black boxes is that they …

• We should have made it clear that when discussing carcinogen content, the smokeless tobacco product to which we were referring was moist snuff (22 August, p 5) . • Changfeng Chen is at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, not Jiao Tong University in Shanghai as we stated (5 September, p 39) .