Letters archive

Steve Wilson writes to suggest that experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) record only particle collisions that fit the standard model (SM) (7 April, p 32) . I am part of the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration at CERN. We typically do data analyses that test theories beyond the SM. Examples include looking for signs …

Dan Jones begins his piece on why we are different from chimps saying: "Nobody would mistake a human for a chimpanzee, yet we share more DNA than mice and rats do" (24 March, p 34) . I'm sure your average mouse couldn't tell a human and a chimpanzee apart, but would see no relationship whatever …

Experimental results suggesting precognition discussed in Bob Holmes's article (14 January, p 38) remind me of a quirk of certain high performers at college. Upon finishing an exam, they would rush back to their rooms to open their books and see what they'd got wrong. I had always assumed that this was a sign of …

Jessica Hamzelou writes that because obese people receive a higher dose of X-rays in a CT scan, "they are 60 per cent more likely than those of average weight to develop the disease" (14 April, p 13) . No – they are 60 per cent more likely to develop the disease as a result of …

You report on another attempt to ban routine use of low-dose antibiotics to increase growth in livestock, mainly because it will encourage the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (31 March, p 6) – and over the page say that antibiotics may also play a role in making people fat (p 8) . If antibiotic-induced growth in …

Your story on laying fibre-optic cables in the Arctic (17 March, p 19) stated "the underside of sea ice also has ridges, or 'bummocks', that reach depths of 18 metres". I thought I remembered greater depths mentioned, and on rereading the accounts of the submarine USS Nautilus 's journeys under the Arctic in 1958 and …

Your discussions of social networks were rather good, but tended to oversimplify the story ( Instant Expert, 7 April ). Take the assertion that we typically have two networks: friends and relatives. I would say most people have at least three, the third being work colleagues, who are mostly not friends or relatives. It is …

David Hirst asserts that deaths will have occurred among evacuees from the zone surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and implies that these can be fairly blamed on the accident (31 March, p 30) . But Wade Allison, author of Radiation and Reason , has written that evacuation was ordered on the basis of far …

Kate Douglas discussed why humans became bipedal (24 March, p 36) . I see a big gap. When the great ape that was our distant ancestor came down out of the trees and onto the veldt, it had something that very few other prey species had: binocular vision, usually a feature of predators. Prey have …

Feedback was puzzled by the term "hand-raised" appearing on a shop sign advertising pork pies (31 March) . The notes to P. G. Wodehouse's novel Sunset at Blandings include a description from Fortnum & Mason, London purveyors of fine food, to the effect that "a raised pie is made as follows: pastry... is moulded round, …

Discussing matter-antimatter annihilation, you say "each photon created in this process carries an energy exactly equivalent to the annihilated mass of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron" (31 March, p 33) . An electron and positron usually annihilate to give two photons. Creating just one photon in such an annihilation is impossible because …

The feather-like projections on the back of the pre-dinosaur Longisquama insignis (24 March, p 8) remind me of a defensive feature of much later animals. Could these "early feathers" have acted in a similar way to a porcupine's quills? That could explain the thick border on one edge: to strengthen them. A would-be predator would …

In my appropriately slow-but-steady reading of New Scientist , I have just got round to reading the article on cognitive research in tortoises and turtles (24/31 December 2011, p 44) . It brought back pleasant memories of working as a research assistant in the turtle lab at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. The turtles pushed …

I am amazed that astronomer Geoff Marcy assumes the most technologically advanced method of interstellar communication available to extraterrestrial beings would be the laser (31 March, p 28) . Instead of limiting our ideas to our own abilities, think of faster-than-light techniques that we can barely imagine, probably using wormholes. Anyway, if extraterrestrials have been …

The idea of driverless cars (31 March, p 19) was originally conceived by Enid Blyton over 60 years ago in her Noddy stories. The central character owns a car that is capable of driving by itself. I hope the first autonomous model will be finished in chrome yellow with scarlet wheel arches in honour of …