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6 January 2010
From Stephen Wilson
Kate Douglas's article on same-sex coupling in nature (5 December, p 49) touches on such behaviour in humans, but omits a possibility that relates to the species and not the individual. In order to replenish a human population in times of disease or disaster, it is important that human sexual desire is collectively always "on". …
6 January 2010
From Paul Marques
Jim Giles's summary of the issues surrounding the detection of drinking using the SCRAM skin-monitoring anklet refers to our study of the accuracy of these devices (5 December, p 44) . Giles quotes my suggestion that a person detected as having consumed alcohol be notified promptly so he or she could have an independent alcohol …
6 January 2010
From Bryn Glover
I was disturbed to read in Joerg Heber's article on computer supermemories that a chip is defined as "stable" if it does not degrade for at least a decade (5 December, p 40) . A decade seems a disastrously short time. What possible use is that for one's entire collection of family photographs or "every …
6 January 2010
From Richard Platt
In his article "Inconspicuous consumption", David S. Reay suggests that "we can each be part of the solution" to climate change if we drink fewer lattes, wash our clothes less often, and buy different lavatory paper (28 November, p 43) . This is dangerous tokenism. While it is true that making small sacrifices can cut …
6 January 2010
From Jon Sutton
I was interested to see your coverage of Jonathan Rowles's letter to The Psychologist on the notion of quantum psychology (Feedback, 28 November) . Before becoming editor of The Psychologist , I spent a few weeks on a placement in the New Scientist offices, and I will always remember being told that you experienced a …
6 January 2010
From John Relph
I have just read Feedback's note about the strange and wonderful residents of the fictional island of "Zero Zero" – where the prime meridian and the equator intersect (Feedback, 28 October) . I used to be an airline ground mechanic at London's Heathrow airport. When 747 jumbos were introduced in 1970 I heard Zero Zero …
6 January 2010
From W. Ray
Paul Marks's article on electrically heated roads (28 November, p 26) reminded me of an article published in your excellent magazine about an electricity-generating road developed by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa (10 December, p 25) . Would it be possible to combine the two ideas to produce a totally self-sufficient heated road?
6 January 2010
• The Solar Impulse was not, as we stated, the first crewed solar aircraft to take off under its own power, rather it was the first to do so while carrying enough batteries to fly through the night on stored solar energy (5 December, p 21) .
Issue no. 2742 published 9 January 2010
