Letters archive

I read your account of California's carbon trading scheme with interest (24 November, p 14) . I am glad economist Luca Taschini said "the best scenario would be one global market" rather than national or regional markets. For several years I have been advocating a global carbon market scheme to begin in 2020. Rather than …

I would like to add a little to your report on the death of astronomer and The Sky at Night broadcaster Patrick Moore (15 December, p 9) . He always described himself as an amateur astronomer – and indeed that is what he was, in the sense that he had no degrees, and had never …

There is no significant improvement in the survival rates of very premature babies as you reported (8 December, p 7) , because there has been no significant advancement in medical technology. Premature babies are still kept in incubators. The big barrier for earlier-born babies is maturity of the respiratory system, which is incapable of supplying …

Further to your editorial and report on the outcome of the climate change summit in Doha, Qatar ( 15 December, p 5 and p 10 ), let's find the positives. I didn't hear anyone in Doha questioning the science or the need for urgent action. While many were lamenting the pace of the negotiations, the …

Obstetrician Lisa Harris cites protocols on abortions for women who are miscarrying at US Catholic-affiliated hospitals, and by association presumes that the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland was due to that country's restrictive abortion law (24 November, p 29) . That this unfortunate mother asked for or was refused an abortion is far from …

Coming from an engineering background, I was pleased to see that the only realistic alternative to fossil fuel for transport, namely biofuel from non-food crops, is at last attracting serious attention (8 December, p 34) . It was interesting to note, however, that most of the projects described are based in the US, with its …

Your story on planetary rings and moon formation (8 December, p 18) is interesting, but Earth's moon seems too massive to have originated from a ring system. However, the possibility that early Earth had such a system supports the capture hypothesis for the origin of the moon. The moon could have been captured by Earth …

Mark Pagel suggests that human languages evolve in order to foster group identity (8 December, p 38) . And he highlights our linguistic diversity in comparison with animals, saying that you could take a gorilla, chimpanzee, donkey, cricket or goldfish "and plop it down anywhere these species are found, and it would know how to …

Mathematical biologist Harold de Vladar seems to have overlooked a crucial factor in his efforts to use game theory to weigh up the losses and gains of broadcasting our presence to extraterrestrials, some of whom may be predatory (15 December, p 11) . Any alien species sufficiently hostile to make the trip all the way …

For many Europeans, the antipathy towards genetically modified crops (13 October, p 8) stems less from their effect on our food than from the concern that their widespread introduction will enable powerful chemical companies to hold farmers to ransom over seed supplies.