Letters archive

If the working of the brain includes a mechanical element, as Anil Ananthaswamy's article indicates (31 August, p 32) , could this help our understanding of conditions such as memory loss and dementia? Maybe it will prove possible to see if the older brain becomes stiffer at the synaptic level, in the same way that …

Your article may have resolved a personal mystery. I've had several episodes of transient global amnesia (TGA), in which short-term memory is disrupted. The first was triggered by jet lag, but the second was more curious. I was in a concrete-lined room and there was a diesel machine working nearby, creating a strong, resonant, unpleasant …

I have long thought that the lack of police available to catch those committing trivial offences has led to an increase in crime because people expect to get away with it. Perhaps the growing use of algorithms to solve crimes will restore some balance (7 September, p 36) . I can testify to the importance …

Rightly or wrongly, fracking seems to provoke many fears in those living near a drilling site (10 August, p 36) : discharge of toxic chemicals, pollution of drinking water, earth tremors, messing up the countryside and so on. If shale gas can be found underneath our feet, surely it can also be found beneath the …

• The British Geological Survey, in a report to the UK Parliament , said logistical hurdles and higher costs at sea have so far deterred offshore fracking, but it is possible. In the US, it says extensive reserves on land make fracking at sea redundant.

Your report on research into the prevalence of rape in some Asian countries notes that 1 in 10 men surveyed admitted to "raping a woman other than a partner" (14 September, p 6) . In fact, stranger rape is in most countries a minority of all rapes. The separation of rape into non-partner and partner …

Thomas Rid claims that cyberwar has not taken place, is not taking place at present, and is unlikely in the future (7 September, p 26) . Furthermore, he also dismisses the cyberattacks against Iranian nuclear facilities by Israel and the US using the computer worm Stuxnet, and claims that a computer breach causing an electricity …

Manufacturers offering remote machine operation will need more than nerves of steel (7 September, p 22) , they will need a whole new generation of control software designed with security in mind. Machine manufacturers risk falling into the same trap that plagued Microsoft in the early days of the internet and spawned the so-called "firewall" …

Considering the objects we use as an extension of our minds (7 September, p 28) brought back my driving instructor's words of wisdom: "The car will become part of you; it will be like an extension of yourself – your body and your brain." He was right, as any driver knows. This feeling takes time …

Mariana Mazzucato's view that major innovation should be credited to government support (24 August, p 26) doesn't resonate with me. That Apple received a $500,000 small business investment loan is scant evidence the hand of government had a measurable role, and it is even arguable whether Apple has created new technology. There is a place …

In 1959, British physicist C. P. Snow, in the Rede Lecture at Cambridge in the UK, famously declared that there were two camps of intellectuals – science and humanities – that rarely spoke to one another and that this hindered progress. This still seems to be the case. Take for example your article on the …

The look at brown dwarfs finishes by making an argument for a new classification of these bodies, which are neither stars nor planets (24 August, p 37) . The portmanteau "starlet" seems appropriate. Chichester, West Sussex, UK

Your article on the dangers of super solar flares evokes the ultimate scenario of societal collapse in a world reliant on electronics (10 August, p 46) . If such a flare occurs there doesn't seem to be any obvious plan to get infrastructure back up and running. There are not enough computer chip manufacturing facilities …

The research you report likening the way the brain structures language to a dictionary (31 August, p 11) raises the possibility that it is dictionaries that structure language in the same way as the brain. In fact, lexicographers often strive to match the pattern of children's language acquisition. Psychologist Edward L. Thorndike pioneered the practice …

Further to Anthony Wheeler's letter on distracting road "safety" signs (7 September, p 30) , am I alone in being alarmed by the trend for big yellow signs on dangerous stretches of road stating "13 accidents in 4 years" or something similar? As well as distracting the eyes, they invite the driver's mind to take …

• In our article on tissue regeneration inspired by the body's extracellular matrix (14 September, p 32) , we should have said Greg Bix is at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. • We incorrectly identified Trypanosoma cruzi as the organism that causes sleeping sickness in our story on frugal science in developing countries (7 …