Letters archive

Your article on the corrupting effect of power (7 July, p 28) did not mention research from 1970s management studies showing that hierarchical systems encourage people to "gild the lily" to their superiors, who in turn do the same to those above them and so on, distorting reality at every step in the process. In …

Mairi Macleod's look at the possible use of bodily scents in perfume was interesting, but I was dismayed at the presumption that synthetic compounds that can affect our biological and neurological processes should be used (12 May, p 36) . I do not want to taste other people's perfumes. Smoking was banned for its passive …

In response to Randall Amster's suggestion that one day anarchists may embrace science (7 July, p 26) , he may be pleased to know that some already have. I'm a hacktivist, and regrettably my anarchism has landed me in prison for the next 17 months. Science never interested me until I came to prison, and …

The letter from Pete Riley of campaign group GM Freeze questioning a field trial of genetically modified wheat illustrates one of the defects of the environmentalist philosophy (16 June, p 32) . He equates practical with moral objections. The fact that a modification might not "work" is taken as a moral argument that it should …

Like Kat Austen, it wasn't until I saw some of Jackson Pollock's works in their original size at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that I finally experienced the "aha" moment of appreciation (14 July, p 42) . Until then, in common with other sceptics, I felt that the process of dripping paint …

Your editorial on gaining new temperature information from tree rings, states: "Climate scientists have long held that the past 2000 years were almost uniformly cool" (14 July, p 3) . Why? At school I learned that in Roman times England's climate was warm enough to grow grapes, and much research has confirmed this. The same …

So for want of $1 million in funding, we won't be able to spot killer asteroids from the southern hemisphere until 2017 (7 July, p 12) . Why don't the bankers with their bonuses show their true value to humanity and supply the missing cash? If a bank can sponsor London's bike hire scheme, why …

Though acting from a non-religious motivation, Sanal Edamaruku's exposure of the dud miracle in a church in India (30 June, p 27) advances an important Roman Catholic agenda. The 25th session of the Council of Trent, one of a series of ecumenical meetings in the 16th century, defended the legitimate use of sacred images in …

It was a delight to read Nick Lane's holistic account of the origin of life on Earth (23 June, p 32) . The scope of knowledge covered is awesome, but critical facts and hypotheses are masterfully and lucidly assembled into an exemplary work of simple, understandable and sustained logic. Gaps are honestly acknowledged and the …

"What kind of bang was the big bang?" asks your cover story (30 June, p 32) . Maybe I am missing something but it was, erm, a big one...

Regarding Brian Switek's review of Mark Derr's book How the Dog Became the Dog (30 June, p 46) , I have an alternative hypothesis for the co-evolution of dogs and humans. Without the dog, and its excellent sense of smell, acting as a sentinel, humans could not have evolved the anatomy needed for language, as …

Further to discussion of the Rio+20 Earth Summit and hopes of progress (30 June, p 10) , the failure of past summits suggests that politicians could not choose science over self-interest even if they wanted to. The market system politicians represent is concerned only with profit, not logic. As long as capitalism remains the operating …

Unpaid work in science may be more common than Rick Bradford imagines in his letter on open-access publishing (14 July, p 29) . Amateur naturalists have been the bedrock of taxonomy, biogeography and conservation for centuries, and in some areas – such as long-term monitoring of animal populations – are the sole researchers.

The problems that led to the crash of Air France flight 447 in 2009, which killed 228 people, were fully solvable and, as you reported, the pilots' inability to deal with them reflects on their training ( http://staging.newscientistbeta.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/af447-final-report.html ). More new-generation pilots need to take a glider course, where they will learn some stick and …

Letter writer Ron Barnes recalls the impact of his loss of hair when young (30 June, p 31) . He should take solace in the idea that his extra-powerful brain is leading the evolutionary race for higher efficiency cooling.

• In our look at nanobubbles (7 July, p 38) the pressures for the 5 centimetre and 1 centimetre soap bubbles in the diagram should have been 2x10 -5 atmospheres and 1x10 -4 atmospheres respectively.