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12 January 2011
From Max Wallis
Harry Collins does not clarify why the multimillion-dollar hunt for gravitational waves is a worthwhile enterprise (27 November 2010, p 30) . The existence of gravitational radiation was doubted by physicists, including Einstein, through the 1920s and 30s. Einstein's argument was that gravity is equivalent to acceleration of the reference frame and, consequently, a distortion …
12 January 2011
From Sandy Henderson
When discussing the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and birds (11 December 2010, p 36) , surprisingly James O'Donoghue did not mention the gizzard. It could be argued that this muscular stomach used for grinding up food did for birds what the internal combustion engine did for aeroplanes, and the nuclear reactor for submarines. Effectively the …
12 January 2011
From Ian Stewart, Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick
I have no wish to disparage Frank Farris's creativity with hyperbolic wallpaper (11 December 2010, p 44) , but the article inadvertently gave a misleading impression of the mathematical novelty behind his designs. We are told that Farris "found that the Poincarite equivalent of a reflection is... inversion". I'm sure he did, but he almost …
12 January 2011
From Anthony Wright
While interbreeding is one explanation for the greater homology of Neanderthal DNA with non-African than with African humans (4 December 2010, p 32) , there is a simpler alternative explanation. The genetic divergence between African and non-African humans which has occurred during the 60 or so millennia since their separation may be partly due to …
12 January 2011
From Michael Carrette
In my experience, it is not only frogs that can pass foreign objects in their urine (11 December 2010, p 16) . As a gynaecologist, I have applied hundreds of pairs of Filshie clips – small self-locking clips made of titanium and silicone rubber – to Fallopian tubes for female sterilisation. Several years ago one …
12 January 2011
From Peter Hayes
Scepticism towards Einstein's theory of relativity is not confined to irrational conservatives (13 November 2010, p 48) . In his later years, the philosopher Karl Popper became increasingly troubled by relativity. I argue that, for Popper, inconsistencies in Einstein's presentation of his theory gave a rational explanation for persistent opposition to it ( Studies in …
12 January 2011
From Jan Horton
The reason that marsupials such as kangaroos are not farmed in Australia (9 October 2010, p 42) is not because it is too difficult, but rather that in various states it is either illegal to do so or discouraged. In the past, considerable work has been done on farming marsupials. I was familiar with a …
12 January 2011
From John Wilson
Apparently red dwarfs are "more bountiful than expected" (4 December 2010, p 7) . Should these be the stars I wish upon, then?
12 January 2011
• An unfortunate last-minute editing error made plant biologist Joan Edwards a "he" (25 December 2010, p 45) . Apologies. • A sentence in our article on networked bacteria was meant to read "Electrosynthesis could also produce industrial inorganic compounds like caustic soda...". Caustic soda is not, of course, organic (18 December 2010, p 38) …
Issue no. 2795 published 15 January 2011
