Letters archive

As a scientist and engineer, I was amazed to find that the patterns described in Rachel Courtland's article on Benford's law came as such a surprise (16 October, p 10) . It is only natural that numbers that are randomly distributed on a logarithmic scale translate into this observed pattern. Compare the spacing between 1 …

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt says that the desirability of cars that drive themselves is a no-brainer (16 October, p 19). I disagree. These cars, which Google has unconscionably put on the roads of California, cannot plan adequately for the unplanned. They can be programmed for varying traffic laws, but not for the multitude of different …

I was surprised and disappointed by your coverage of the award of a Nobel prize for IVF pioneer Robert Edwards (9 October, p 7) . I felt that you gave too much prominence to the criticism, especially that of the Catholic church. I understand that it was and is a controversial issue, but to put …

You quote Michele Aresta, Director of Italy's National Consortium on Catalysis, who suggests that humankind "can fly much better than birds", and can therefore supersede photosynthesis easily (25 September, p 48) . Comparing our attempts at flight with that of birds tells us that attempting to out-do nature at photosynthesis is going to be considerably …

Reading Jessica Griggs's recent news story on visual illusions (4 September, p 14) , I was reminded of a picture I painted as a student, some 50 years ago. It started out as a picture of a man sleeping under one of those enormous hats in a typical "cartoon Mexican" pose: sitting on the ground …

My wife lacks the inner voice that most people have, just as David Dunthorn's wife does (16 October, p 27) . She does not experience any kind of inner dialogue, and when she reads she hears nothing. She says that she knows what the words mean as soon as she sees them. She doesn't have …

I was surprised that David Robson should think it necessary to go back in time to test whether knowing a berry's name might help someone find it more quickly (4 September, p 30) . Modern bird watchers, botanists and other nature aficionados are all familiar with the way that one's ability to identify species increases …

It's not only the Zulus in South Africa who treat fever by increasing body temperature (11 September, p 30) . In the Piedmont region of Italy, the traditional treatment is to cover the patient in blankets and make them drink a full bottle of strong red wine – barolo for those who can afford it, …

Is any other reader inexorably reminded of the medieval scholastics trying to calculate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, when they read articles in New Scientist about cosmology and particle physics? Rachel Courtland's "Countdown to oblivion" – addressing a supposed paradox arising from a mathematical model of the multiverse – …

• In our article on endangered species (30 October, p 7) we mention the leopard magpie moth ( Zerenopsis lepida , or Z. leopardina , depending on which lepidopterist we talked to). But any lepidopterist will tell you that it is not this species that we pictured, but a Millar's tiger moth ( Callioratis millari …