Letters archive

The more I read of Giovanni Vignale's "The power of the abstract", the more I smiled and the more at ease I felt with the world (26 February, p 32) . He presented the truest spirit of the scientist – the student, the creator, the master, the supplicant, the truth-sayer, the poet, the fool. All …

It seems grossly premature to declare a victory for Niels Bohr in his great debate with Einstein over the meaning of quantum mechanics (26 February, p 36) . Yes, the violation of Bell's inequality in experiments by Alain Aspect and others appears increasingly likely to rule out "local realism", Einstein's favoured interpretation. But many physicists …

The otherwise excellent exposé by Marianne Freiberger and Rachel Thomas of the misuse of medical statistics itself fell into a common trap by quoting statistics as annual rates ( 12 February, p 40 ). This often makes numbers look reassuringly low, but is easily misinterpreted. For example, adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus affecting 0.00569 per cent …

In responding to David Robson's important but imprecise statement that "up to 80 per cent of our mental experiences are verbal" (4 September 2010, p 30) , Ben Haller was partly justified in saying that "raw visual percepts – such as colour – outnumber other kinds of mental experience by orders of magnitude" (30 October …

I am a keen gamer, with or without a computer, and this is not unrelated to my two chosen professions of IT specialist and writer/editor. The "gamification" of our everyday lives that MacGregor Campbell describes (8 January, p 36) certainly pushes buttons and will probably catch on in the way Campbell anticipates. I would, however, …

Your correspondents Steve Champion and Carol Primrose offer differing explanations for the origin of the term "wrong end of the stick" (12 February, p 27) . I believe that both are correct, and that the modern term is a linguistic superposition of two distinct expressions. Growing up, I was familiar with the term "the shitty …

I am frustrated. What by? By having to describe myself as the opposite of something that I am not, rather than what I actually am. Atheists of the UK unite: in the census due here on 27 March , describe yourself not as "atheist" but as "scientific realist", to demonstrate what you do believe in, …

Helen Thomson's article on Darwinian dating was great, but it missed a woman's core courtship tool: high oestrogen levels (12 February, p 36) . When she is fertile a woman has more symmetry in her ear lobes, nostrils and breasts; she dresses in a more alluring manner and her body language is encouraging of courtship. …

I was surprised, and a little disappointed, to see no reference to the Futurama episode "A Big Piece of Garbage" (series 1, episode 8) in the article about the Nasal Ranger (12 February, p 21) . I would have thought that at least one person on the team behind New Scientist would be a big …

• In a letter to New Scientist , Barbara Sommerville wrote that the more acceptable longer-term approach to population control is to "educate women and supply them with contraceptives", but her reference to the specific efficacy of education for women disappeared in editing (5 March, p 32) . Sorry. • Science is never still in …