Join the conversation in New Scientist's Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
6 April 2011
From Bry Lynas
Just as the nuclear industry was on the brink of a renaissance, along comes the disaster at Fukushima (19 March, p 5 and p 8) . Anti-nuclear campaigners now have serious grist for their mills. There are, however, two courses of action for the nuclear industry that should make nuclear power a serious "green" option …
6 April 2011
From Chris Coes
You point out that GPS is an essential element of some critical systems such as air traffic control (12 March, p 3 and p 44) . There is, however, no need for cellphone masts and ATMs to rely on GPS. They both have easy access to high-bandwidth fixed line networks that could provide accurate time …
6 April 2011
From David Flint
Humanists4Science Martin Nowak is right to say that "Evolution is not an argument against God" (19 March, p 34) . It is, however, a powerful argument against the literal truth of the Bible, the Koran and any other book that asserts a creationist position – and many religious people base their faith on the literal …
6 April 2011
From Chris Owen
Your excellent piece on the evolution of humans and how civilisation has shaped us (19 March, p 36) reminded me of a great test for membership of the baby boomer generation: ask the test subject to press a doorbell. Those of us born before mobile phones and handheld consoles almost always use our index finger; …
6 April 2011
From Erik Foxcroft
The effect of vitamin D on the speed at which certain drugs are broken down (12 March, p 13) may be particularly significant for warfarin, a drug for which it is notoriously difficult to calculate the appropriate dose. Your article mentions only sunlight as a factor in vitamin D levels. But many people take supplements …
6 April 2011
From Buff Davis
Reporting on dream research, Emma Young mentions Matt Walker's view that dreaming is important for "rebalancing the emotional compass" (12 March, p 36) . Walker's finding that sleep strengthens certain emotional memories might be seen as support for the use of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (3 …
6 April 2011
From Justin Williams
I loved Helen Thomson's wonderful article on what prompts attraction at first sight, and I imagine that men have since been rushing out to buy red shirts (12 February, p 36) . I do wonder if this applies to the gay and lesbian worlds. It would be interesting to know whether there have been similar …
6 April 2011
From Richard Butterfield
In the "Instant expert" guide to mass extinctions, your description of how woolly rhinos and mammoths died out 11,000 years ago was accompanied by two pictures (5 March, p ii) . One correctly showed mammoths, but the other is not the two-horned woolly rhino ( Coleodonta antiquitatis ) but the much larger Elasmotherium sibiricum , …
6 April 2011
From Les Hearn
If that's a "gushing larva" in Iceland, as your picture caption indicates (12 March, p 43), I'd hate to see the adult!
6 April 2011
• While the text in our "Instant expert" pull-out guide to dark matter (5 February) said that the Z boson transmits the weak nuclear force, the caption on p iv said otherwise. The caption was incorrect. • In a bungled attempt at clarification of a letter by Valerie Yule about using concert technology to help …
Issue no. 2807 published 9 April 2011
