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25 November 2009
From Jack Kettlewell
Your editorial on the environmental impact of pets comes at a poignant time in the autumn of my veterinary career (24 October, p 5) . I have suffered guilt for some time over my role in the excesses of the pet industry. Despite the dire warnings of global overconsumption, indulgence in our pets has skyrocketed …
25 November 2009
From Jack Winkler, Nutrition Policy Unit, London Metropolitan University
Your editorial made a laudable public stand in support of genetic modification as a way to produce nutritionally enhanced crops (31 October, p 5) . But by focusing on one crop, produced by one company in the developed world, you overlook the most important activity in this area. Most nutritional GM is focused on improving …
25 November 2009
From Roger French
Douglas Fox relates how researcher David Eagleman asked volunteers to endure 30 metres of free fall into a safety net while wearing an LED device to determine whether altered perception or a change in the speed of observation could account for the feeling that time slows down during stressful events. Eagleman decided the phenomenon must …
25 November 2009
From Tom Weinberger
Andy Coghlan discussed the possibility that calves may feel pain after Jewish or Muslim ritual slaughter (17 October, p 11), and the suggestion that stunning before slaughter is more humane. I would refer your readers to a far earlier article (23 October 1999, p 6) in which John Bonner describes the discovery of brain tissue …
25 November 2009
From Iain Mathewson
I read with interest Elaine Morgan's explanation for human hairlessness (19 September, p 28) and I would like to propose my own alternative: our nakedness must be to do with producing more vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble hormone with a multiplicity of actions, particularly in the central nervous and immune …
25 November 2009
From Gracie Banks
It was disappointing to read a gender assumption in Michael Bond's article on interview techniques. He explains that you are more likely to get the job if the interviewer gets on with you: "If an employer thinks you're likeable, he may also think you are intelligent..." (UK edition Graduate Careers Special, 24 October, p 7) …
25 November 2009
• In our article on supersymmetry, we should have stated that Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten work at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (14 November, p 36) . • Alvaro Montenegro is assistant professor at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada (14 November, p 6) .
Issue no. 2736 published 28 November 2009
