Letters archive

The correspondence (8 January, p 24) regarding Dan Hind's proposal to put research funding to the popular vote (11 December 2010, p 26) reminded me of a project I was involved in, under the inspiring leadership of the late Phil May of the University of California, Los Angeles. Phil knew of Arrow's impossibility theorem: that …

Your guest editorial by Niels Morling stated that the UK's Forensic Science Service (FSS) will be wound down for commercial reasons (8 January, p 5) . While few enjoy seeing such organisations close, we live in a world of limited resources, and governments must make hard decisions about the allocation of those resources. It seems …

Greg Lastowka seems to argue that current law does not cover virtual property (6 November 2010, p 44) , yet I believe it does. A novel can be virtual since it does not necessarily have to have a physical existence, yet the ownership is established by copyright. Would copyright law not also protect virtual objects …

I was once told, by one who associates with actuaries, that the "French paradox" (25 December 2010, p 54) is a measurement artefact. In France, if an elderly person is found dead without any evidence of health problems, it is acceptable to attribute the death to "old age". If French law decreed that a post-mortem …

In her otherwise excellent article on the rise of bitter craft beers (25 December 2010, p 60) , it was a shame that Lizzie Buchen didn't mention a major factor in understanding the increase: some people, myself included, don't taste bitterness. This hereditary trait would have been of particular interest given that the article explored …

Daryl Bem's experiments showing small correlations that suggest some human ability for precognition (18 December 2010, p 30) made me wonder whether a global "buzz" like that caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland last year might show a similar effect. After the eruption, hundreds of millions of people were suddenly hearing, …

Helen Thomson reports on reconditioning methods that manipulate the brain to remove fear responses (11 December 2010, p 12) . This is something I have been doing for around 20 years. One day I challenged my fear of dogs and discovered the source was a childhood memory. Once I had realised this, I was able …

Mohammad Mehdi Daneshi argues that he can create a justification for judicial punishment by describing a person as a "human robot" (11 December 2010, p 29) . "If our human robot malfunctions, it is quite proper to take steps to correct him or her," he says. How are we supposed to decide what constitutes a …

In Douglas Fox's article about why we treat things like people (27 November 2010, p 32) , he mentions Microsoft's annoying animated paperclip. That it is referred to as "Clippy" throughout the article, while its actual name is "Clippit", is a good indication of just how forgotten it is. It isn't the only piece of …

• We're sorry if we caused you to go hungry this month. When discussing the angle of a pizza slice in our interview with Michael Hartl (8 January, p 23) , we should have said that he was working in radians, not degrees.