Letters archive

With regard to your review of John Coates's interesting book The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (9 June, p 48) , there is a much more elegant way to curb the testosterone-charged excesses of the younger male bankers and financiers than castration or drafting in older men. Simply hook them up to a device that …

You reported research showing that blood donation is good for your health, based on a study in BMC Medicine , where the risks of stroke and heart attack fell in overweight donors, through a reduction in blood pressure (2 June, p 5) . Does that mean those old barber-surgeons and early physicians were right? Bloodletting …

May I offer a counterpoint to the criticism of NASA in Neil Craig's letter for "expecting to have to rely on the Russians" for resupply missions to the International Space Station (9 June, p 33) . I congratulate NASA for its excellent timing in spinning off proven technologies to the private sector in order to …

I have a better solution to the first of the Eureka! puzzles featured in your look at creative daydreaming (16 June, p 34) . The problem is to correct the equation laid out in 13 sticks as "III=III+III" by moving only one stick. My solution is VI=III+III. True, the V would be asymmetrical, but hey, …

Your report on Japanese researchers finding unusually high levels of carbon-14 in cedar tree rings laid down between AD 774 and 775 speculates whether a gigantic solar flare or a series of weaker flares over a couple of years might be responsible (9 June, p 17) . Might Chinese astronomical records help? Also, the Anglo-Saxon …

Letter writer Lee Seldon could be right to blame sleeper cell behaviour for his repeated infection by Burkholderia pseudomallei despite antibiotic treatment (19 May, p 33) . A more common example of bacterial survival strategy is that of faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci when discharged to the sea from sewage treatment plants. Faced with sea …

Further to your report on engineering a cooler atmosphere (9 June, p 5) , artificial sky whitening already imposes tangible local cooling on west Wales. Lying under a transatlantic flight path, we often suffer contrails. Once these reach a certain density, one feels the loss of solar energy: beach visitors often leave mid-afternoon because it …

In his letter, Claudio Gino reports that his multilingual daughters had no speaking problems, but he said he knows of three children who had learning problems that stopped when their parents concentrated on one language only (9 June, p 33) . Learning problems occur among both monolingual and multilingual children, and there is no evidence …

The AI system that suggested "Sweat" as a product name by combining "sweet" and "eat" (5 May, p 19) was on the mark but behind the times. Pocari Sweat is a popular Japanese soft drink launched in 1980. I first tried it in South Korea and rather like it.

Philosopher Mary Midgley, aged 90, says that the focus on extending human lifespan should be questioned (16 June, p 29) . It is particularly irritating to those of us trying to find cures for the diseases and disabilities of old age to read the same, tired nonsense trotted out to defend this position. I would …

Your editorial on skeuomorphs (9 June, p 3) – design features added to new devices to mimic familiar old tech – brought to mind good advice from my late mother: "Don't throw away old shoes before you have new ones." Until sounds and images evolve that better describe the action portrayed, such as the click …

In your article "Welcome to the Escher-verse", Lisa Grossman refers to the Escher illustration shown as containing angels and bats (9 June, p 8) . A closer look calls into question their description as bats. This piece, sometimes known as Angels and Demons , offers a contrast between good and evil, light and darkness, not …

In a similar vein to Bill Straub's letter on faith and reason (19 May, p 33) , I was a church parish councillor and also a biology teacher. A new student told me she was a "born-again Christian" and that her parents did not want me to teach her evolution. This made me rethink my …

Kayt Sukel's feature on the differences between male and female brains states: "Men still outnumber women in mathematics, engineering and many areas of science... start lagging behind as they grow up and enter further education" (26 May, p 44) . Yes, no doubt – but has any work been done on the effect of separating …

So the NuSTAR X-ray telescope unfolds to the length of a school bus (16 June, p 6) . What's the difference between an ordinary bus and a school bus? Is it like American gallons and UK gallons? Ten metres, as mentioned later in the article, will do fine, thank you. On a plus note, I …

Baldness, and particularly premature baldness, is a serious problem, and your article (16 June, p 44) , reminded me of the grief that I suffered as a young man because of this affliction. I started going bald in my early twenties in the 1950s, when "Teddy boys" and the likes of Elvis Presley made fancy …

I totally accept that human evolution is down to luck, ( 9 June, p 34 ). The big question is was it good or bad luck?