Letters archive

I'd like to join the conversation on the testing of genetically modified (GM) wheat at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, UK, and threats by activists to destroy the crop (12 May, p 5) . In my experience of addressing large audiences where the subject of genetic modification is brought up, I find that the vast majority …

While reading your article on bilingual brains (5 May, p 31) , I felt that a lot of what it describes applies to me. I speak three languages. My English is not as fluent as my mother tongue, Russian, nor my second language, Ukrainian, but still good enough to "switch personality". Sometimes when speaking or …

Regarding Maurice Ward and his wonder material Starlite (12 May, p 40) . The television demonstration you mentioned shows an egg coated in Starlite resisting a blowtorch, but the outer surface developed a slight char. More tellingly, the presenter could then break the egg apart using the fingers of one hand. The suspicion is that …

I disagree that my generation gets its high self-esteem, or "vanity", from uncritical parenting (28 April, p 44) . If there is a cause, I think it lies more in the increased charitable volunteering of this group that psychologist Jeffrey Arnett highlighted. Maybe my generation's thought and care for others is the cause of our …

In "Engineering love", Julian Savulescu and Anders Sandberg describe how manipulating the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin in voles can radically alter mating behaviour (12 May, p 28) . They suggest humans could manipulate themselves in defiance of evolution as long as these "love drugs" are "in a regulated, professional environment". This is exactly the environment …

You introduced what may be a new measurement of volume: a "minivan-sized" meteor (28 April, p 4) . I had an original Mini van, and it burned up eventually, just like a meteor.

Jim Giles imagines he is a curmudgeon because he withholds information from Facebook (28 April, p 40) . I go further and do without social media. I just see the obsession with them as wholly trivial and time-wasting, and based mostly on a need to conform and not feel left out of something. In many …

Probably the only way to curb some of the growth in the popularity of shark fin soup that you discussed (28 April, p 36) is to advertise data on the likely toxicity of shark fins and the soup they go into. After all, with sharks at the top of the ocean predator chain, they may …

Your editorial points out that inequality has been growing within countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (21 April, p 5) . On the other hand, hundreds of millions of people, mostly in India and China, have been lifted out of poverty to a modest standard of living by economic growth. …

• In our story on energy supply in Japan (28 April, p 5) we should have said that nuclear power made up a third of the country's electricity generating capacity.