Letters archive

An optimistic Jesse Ausubel tells us we are so clever that we will always figure out a way to beat Malthusian predictions of population catastrophe (26 September, p 38) . It has indeed worked so far, as exponential population growth smacks up against merely linear resource growth. In the end, though, he's counting on us …

Caroline Williams casts doubt on the received wisdom that the bees' waggle dance is about communicating the direction and distance of a source of food (19 September, p 40) . Having kept bees for 37 years, I concur. Waggle dances can be seen most frequently in early spring. If their purpose is to provide directions, …

I agree with Harriet Coleman (22 August, p 24) that the debate about global warming is really about preserving our way of life, and that "in the worst case we will be trying to save enough civilisation not to have to start again from the Stone Age". However, I would also add that the chances …

In his article on genetic engineering, Michael Le Page claims that genetically modified Golden Rice will "help to improve health and reduce child mortality, which will ultimately contribute to a reduction in population growth" (12 September, p 37) . I disagree. Surely the population will increase if people live longer because they are healthier, and …

The chart on "extreme poverty" at the end of part one of your "Blueprint for a better world" series errs in using the classification of earnings below $1.25 per day (12 September, p 30) . This amount, off the tourist trails, in northern India or Chad, for example, would probably buy a whole family a …

I found your "Blueprint for a better world" series interesting ( 12 , 19 and 26 September , and 3 October ), as I am involved in an endeavour called Our Future Planet , which has similar aims. To reduce population by 50 per cent while also offering children and parents a better interactive future, …

Another plea in your pages for geoengineering (12 September, p 34) makes me wonder if I am alone in my concern about the potential for warlike abuse of these techniques. Several of those now discussed could be used to intentionally damage territories and populations by inciting droughts or floods, or by changing sea or air …

In Henry Nicholls's article on taming wild animals, I was intrigued to read that "You can do anything with the tame rats... you can move their arms and legs" (3 October, p 40) . Did those rats that were bred to be aggressive also have arms? Was there interest from the military in the idea …

Copernicus was a great scientist and should be commemorated, though Aristarchus of Samos came up with the heliocentric theory 17 centuries earlier. But it seems perverse to name element 112 after Copernicus when there are contributors to the periodic system who have not yet been honoured (25 July, p 7) .

• We misspelled John Cockcroft's name in our editorial on ITER, sorry (10 October, p 5) . • Apologies also to Georgios Yannakakis whose name we misspelled in our article on adaptive computer games (10 October, p 21) .