Letters archive

Curtis Bell calls for a pledge from neuroscientists that they will not apply their knowledge to activities that violate international law and human rights (6 February, p 24) . As he states in his article, any body of knowledge can be used for good or ill. This is true of science and technology in general, …

Philip Ball mentions termite mounds' finely crafted ventilation systems as one of the features of insect architecture from which humans could take inspiration (20 February, p 35) . In hot, dry Iran, people have in fact been incorporating wind-catching, passive cooling systems for centuries. Iran's traditional architecture includes air traps in a variety of shapes …

Melanie Bayley's article on Alice in Wonderland shows how authors can use fiction and satire to protest against goings-on that they profoundly dislike, without getting themselves into too much trouble (19 December 2009, p 38) . As a sequel, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) wrote the less well-known Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found …

Frank Ryan reports how, if a virus gets into an organism's germ line, its genes can be transmitted to future generations (30 January, p 32) . I wonder if there could be an additional mechanism. Microchimerism, where there is an exchange of maternal and fetal cells across the placental barrier, is increasingly used to explain …

Ethan Watter's article highlighted the damage that can be done by the imposition of western concepts of illness on the rest of the world (23 January, p 26) . The danger goes beyond what Watters calls "upending long-held cultural beliefs about the meaning of illness". The promotion of western medicine to the exclusion of indigenous …

In her article on rock art, Kate Ravilious notes the existence of numerous cave symbols drawn in the same style in different parts of the world (20 February, p 30) . The findings would have delighted Carl Jung, who nearly 100 years ago insisted that human beings everywhere shared a common collective unconscious. The myths, …

Anil Ananthaswamy's article on climate-altering pollutants mentioned that existing methods for growing rice pour large amounts of methane into the atmosphere when the paddies are flooded (20 February, p 38) . He bleakly concluded that it would not be easy to get farmers to change their traditional practices. That may be unduly pessimistic. The System …

Edwin Cartlidge's article on anomalous properties of water (6 February, p 32) prompted me to reach for my copy of John Comstock's Elements of Chemistry (49th edition, published in 1844) to compare explanations. The reason Comstock gives for water's maximum density at around 4 °C, and for ice floating on water, is strikingly different from …

Eric E. Johnson may just save the planet when he argues that there might be a legal case for barring the projected experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (20 February, p 24) . It is foolish for humanity to watch in ignorance as massive sums are spent on an experiment dreamed up by experts in …

Ross Richdale complains about "archaic" measurements in the reporting of the 1000 mph car (6 February, p 27) . His letter reminded me of a story my brother, an electrical engineer in the power industry, told me. During the UK miners' strike in the early 1980s, power stations burning fuels other than coal had to …

• We incorrectly used the word "homocentric" when what we meant was "male-centred" (27 February, p 36).