Letters archive

There were some shortcomings in the official declaration agreed at the Rio+20 summit last month (30 June, p 10) , including the failure to make an explicit link between population dynamics and sustainable development. The Royal Society's report on population and consumption released in April, titled People and the planet , highlighted the need for …

I was fascinated to read how the double duplication of the SRGAP2 gene, which helps drive development of the brain's neocortex, appears to have propelled our ancestors' development at two distinct times during the past few million years (12 May, p 10) . If two copies of the gene are better than one, and three …

In Stephen Curry's look at open access publishing for science papers (23 June, p 26) , one question went unanswered: what about those authors who can't afford the $2000 to publish? Adversely affected will be ambitious doctoral students with five chapters worthy of publication, post-doctoral fellows with original papers outside the research agenda of their …

Matthew C. Nisbet refreshingly acknowledges the importance of addressing trust and communication issues between scientists and the public with regard to genetically modified crops, as well as the inadequate government regulation and labelling currently in place (26 May, p 26) . To my mind, the main problem is that the science is too narrowly focused …

In the haste to focus on bankers, Dan Ariely's discussion of cheating appears to have missed a major point (16 June, p 30) . His experiment showing that people will cheat if they think they can get away with it has been writ large in society. The sub-prime crisis was largely fuelled by the infamous …

Ullrich Fischer's letter (16 June, p 33) makes the standard liberal error of supposing that for liberals and conservatives alike "the most important moral precepts are to avoid harming fellow humans and render aid to those in trouble". The evidence says otherwise. A survey of 132,000 people reported by psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book …

Further to cosmologist Charley Lineweaver's attempt to widen the definition of life, could the universe or Earth be considered to be living things (19 May, p 29) ? This would depend on whether the universe is a fully integrated entity or just a collection of organised matter ensembles, one of which (Earth) contains smaller ensembles …

Rather than questioning the evolutionary purpose baldness serves in an individual (16 June, p 44) , perhaps we should ask if older men sacrifice their hair for the good of the male species. If baldness is associated with advancing age, then this group is probably wealthier, more responsible and less self-centred than hirsute male youngsters. …

So the answer to the question of whether life is inevitable or a fluke turns out to be inconclusive (23 June, p 32) . If Nick Lane's thinking is right, all we know for sure is that, using the example of life on Earth, it is both inevitable (simple forms) and a fluke (complex forms).

It is always with great interest that I read your articles on particle physics, the cosmos, grand unified theories and so on, but I think I have inadvertently stumbled on the answer to the dark energy puzzle (2 June, p 36). Frank Zappa once wrote that the most abundant element in the universe is stupidity. …

Well before the next transit of Venus is seen from Earth, 105 years from now (2 June, p 44) , we shall, I hope, have observatories in various parts of the solar system. So, when will it be possible to observe a transit of Earth or Venus from Mars? The editor writes: • Not sure …

• In our description of the sea urchin depicted in Aperture (9 June, p 26) we wrongly described it as expelling its guts through its mouth. In fact, the animal was captured as it defecated. • New York lawyer Maura Grossman's co-author on the study assessing new software for sifting legal documents (23 June, p …