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2 February 2011
From Derek Bolton
There are a few problems with the technique used by Samuel Arbesman and Rachel Courtland to predict when the mathematical problem of "P versus NP" will be solved (25 December 2010, p 24) . Most obviously, it assumes the rate of mathematical progress has been constant, whereas there are vastly more working mathematicians today than …
2 February 2011
From Nan Nicholson
Our family and friends have been playing the secret Santa game for years. We do it for reasons exactly opposite to Graham Lawton's premise that each person really wants to win by ending up with the best possible present (25 December 2010, p 58) . Everyone knows that if they don't end up with the …
2 February 2011
From David Muir
Roger Highfield writes in his myth-busting article on alcohol that "anyone... turning to hangover cures is going to be disappointed" (25 December 2010, p 53) . However, there is hope for drinkers. In an earlier edition of New Scientist (20 December 1997, p 46) , Andy Coghlan described the biochemistry of ethanol metabolism and advocated …
2 February 2011
From Peter Berry
The observation by Linda Geddes that there is "growing evidence that cytokines associated with inflammation can cause depression" (15 January, p 30) got me wondering whether there might be a connection between inflammation, depression and a growing consumption of over-the-counter painkillers. Are we seeing large-scale self-medication against depression with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)? Maybe NSAIDs …
2 February 2011
From Erkko Autio
It is tempting to use the measure of patents per million people to compare countries' levels of innovation – as did, for example, your Insider special on Switzerland (UK edition, 6 November 2010, p 46) . But non-Swiss technology firms establish parent companies in Switzerland for tax reasons. These hold the company's patents and charge …
2 February 2011
From Rob Mellor
Anil Ananthaswamy's article about robotic astronomers (15 January, p 20) omitted to mention that the Palomar Transient Factory also uses human volunteers to analyse some of the data. The volunteers, of which I am one, are credited with having identified over 1200 supernovae in the past year. Human volunteers are better than computers at abstract …
2 February 2011
From Doug Cross
Garry Hamilton's article, "Aliens to the rescue" (15 January, p 34) , rang bells for me here in the Lake District. For the past year, the local Alien and Invasive Species Eradication Officer has been trying to remove skunk cabbage ( Lysichiton americanus ) from the valley of the river Crake. This North American wetland …
2 February 2011
From Richard Durrant
The Chinese plan to divert up to 45 cubic kilometres of water a year from the south of the country to the north, reported in Fred Pearce's IBM-sponsored article (UK edition, 18 December 2010), prompts the question of what happens to that water after use in urban centres. It is estimated that less than half …
2 February 2011
From Gwydion M. Williams
John Healey asks why people speak of the grandfather paradox, involving a person travelling back in time and killing a grandparent, rather than the mother or father paradox (18 December 2010, p 29) . Surely it is to minimise the emotional baggage connected with the problem. Real-life cases of someone murdering their grandfather must be …
2 February 2011
From Carla Cripps
Melanie Keene's article on the Victorian fashion for scientific fairy tales (25 December 2010, p 42) reminded me of an American theme park in the 1980s that promoted the notion that plants grow because little people living beneath the Earth's crust push them upwards from their roots. As if the truth of how plants really …
2 February 2011
From Sean Tailford
Having just read your excellent article about the electrical connections formed by specialised bacteria when they are placed under stress (18 December 2010, p 38) , I was left wondering if anyone has suggested this as a possible mechanism for the evolution of multicellular life.
2 February 2011
From Jeff Penver
As an owner of four pet skunks, three of which are "fully armed", I must debunk your claims that skunk spray almost always causes vomiting (25 December 2010, p 63) . The closest description of the smell I can provide would be that it is similar to burning rubber. I have found that a quick …
2 February 2011
From Caroline Herzenberg
Apparently the cultural association of height with virtue is borne out by experiments which show that positioning people higher up can make them more compassionate, helpful and virtuous (15 January, p 10) . So maybe we should now look to see whether actions related to the right-hand side of a person are associated with righteous …
2 February 2011
• We tied ourselves in knots over Borromean rings (8 January, p 10) . Their key property, as our diagram showed, is that if you remove any one of the rings from the linked set of three, the remaining two are unlinked. Contrary to what we said, none of the rings is threaded through any …
Issue no. 2798 published 5 February 2011
