Letters archive

The idea of relating political ideology to biology is very interesting but there are better ways of expressing the range of political viewpoints than on a single scale (3 November, p 40) . In the 1950s, psychologists Leonard Ferguson and Hans Eysenck independently showed that a two-dimensional graph gave a better view of the spectrum …

I couldn't agree more with your comment that, when it comes to the US military's goal of using costlier green fuels, "it may be worth paying more in the short term to nurture technologies that offer a home-grown, stable alternative to volatile oil markets" (3 November, p 3) . Such is the time that it …

While reading your account of the evolution of kindness in humans (10 November, p 42) it struck me that the "ultimatum game" might not simply reflect altruism. In this psychology experiment, player A suggests how to split a pot of money with player B, and if B agrees, they both keep their share. But if …

I read your article about the possible benefits of bloodletting with interest (17 November, p 40) . I was a regular blood donor for 10 years, until a change of job seven years ago made it too difficult. This year I was able to resume regular donations. Over the past five years I have developed …

I have noticed a universal reticence in science writers when referring to the anthropic principle, as in Matthew Chalmers's piece on the Higgs boson (10 November, p 34) . I can understand this with the "strong" anthropic principle, which asserts that we and the universe were both created with the mutual purpose of the one …

I can personally vouch for the efficacy of the 5:2 diet, in which you strictly limit calorie intake two days a week (17 November, p 46) . After two operations for cancer at the beginning of this year, plus a warning over kidney function, I adopted this regime. After just over two months I was …

Ambitious attempts to copy the human brain (27 October, p 26) omit reference to those long nerves that convey gut feelings. A brain without a body can only be part human- as neurologist Antonio Damasio has argued (27 November 2010, p 50) .

Colour-tunable LED bulbs are good news not just for insomniacs keen to influence circadian cycles, but also, for those of us who have, or will develop, macular degeneration (17 November, p 24) . Causes of this eye condition are thought to include too much light in the blue wavelength. Increasingly, incandescent bulbs are being replaced …

Like many scientists, I was concerned by the recent jailing of six Italian seismologists for failing to adequately communicate earthquake risks before the L'Aquila quake struck in 2009 (27 October, p 3 and 4) In your editorial, you suggested that scientists should speak for themselves and that, as in the Italian case, allowing a civil …

In your 10 November issue, one article discusses the increasing sophistication of telepresence technologies (p 38) , and another the difficulties faced by orbiting robots trying to repair satellites (p 46) . I was struck by the statement in the latter that crewed repair missions offer an advantage, as "humans are adept at changing tactics …

Fred Pearce says that everyone should put their shoulder to the wheel to double global food production by 2050 (13 October, p 50) . Then when challenged, it is made clear this target is not because of the predicted increase in population from 7 to 9 billion, but because of rising demand, especially demand for …

In his letter, Alec Dunn suggests that pumping nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface would stimulate plankton growth and hence capture atmospheric carbon (18 August, p 32) . This could be complemented by ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) (22 November 2008, p 28) . OTEC is a relatively marginal alternative energy source that uses …

A while ago you reported that bee flight had finally been modelled, and suggested that this would lead to new designs for aircraft propellers and improved aircraft stability (3 December 2005, p 17) . Has this breakthrough found any real life application, such as in wind turbine blade design?

April Nowell questions the interpretation of ice age "Venus" figurines as sexual objects (10 November, p 29) . But why infer any adult meaning? We see the same miniature, exaggerated appearance in children's dolls.