Letters archive

I found myself much less surprised than Bob Holmes that species can arise rapidly or even suddenly (13 March, p 30) . The botanist Irene Manton and her students in the middle of the last century clarified the ancestry of several groups of British ferns, and showed just how easily a new species can emerge. …

So the microbial flora that cloaks, occupies and infiltrates us also communicates with us (6 March, p 36) . Do we need to rethink our place in the scheme of things? We are constructed of eukaryotic cells that function through an assemblage of organelles – nucleus, nucleolus, mitochondria, Golgi apparatus and so on – many …

I am glad to see that Solar Orbiter, which would go unprecedentedly close to the sun, is on the European Space Agency's list of three missions being considered for two launch slots (27 February, p 7) . From its unique vantage point, high out of the plane of Earth's orbit, the craft would be guaranteed …

Why have we never found evidence of aliens (27 February, p 46) ? The most obvious explanation is that civilisations capable of advertising their existence across the universe have very short durations. Ours only started inadvertently advertising its presence by radio broadcasts in the last century. Since then we have narrowly avoided extinction by nuclear …

Graham Jones worries that at sea temperatures greater than 26 °C coral ceases to release dimethyl sulphide (DMS) (27 February, p 17) . Since DMS aids in the formation of clouds, Jones postulates that a reduction could dry out the north Queensland rainforests. The majority of rainfall over north Queensland is in the summer monsoon, …

There is a very practical application of knowing that decision-makers can be identified by their wide eyes (6 March, p 11) . I used to work as a consultant psychiatrist in prisons and special psychiatric hospitals, and I noted that before a threatened or actual assault my patients' pupils would dilate. I attributed this to …

In their article asking where atheists come from, Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant suggest that a lack of belief is worthy of inquiry (6 March, p 26) . I come from a line of atheists. Our family could no more suddenly discover a need for an almighty than abandon deeply held beliefs like justice and …

• Green chemist Jim Hutchison is at the University of Oregon , not Oregon State University as we said (13 March, p 34) . • We said alkali-vapour lasers have "mass-to-power ratios that far exceed other lasers"; we meant "power-to-mass" (27 February, p 22) . • We referred to "Antonie Leeuwenhoek" as "father of the …