Letters archive

I found Clare Wilson's feature on the treatment of schizophrenia very interesting ( 8 February, p 32) . I have lived with the illness for more than 30 years. Rather than being forced to continue antipsychotic medication once I was discharged from hospital, I made a rational and I think well-thought-out decision to do so. …

I read your article on the impact on health of the recent floods in Bristol, UK ( 22 February, p 7) , and was reminded of a day in 1968 that no one who lived or worked in the city will forget. I was working in Bedminster, in one of the low-lying areas. It rained …

Adam Corner's excellent article identified the psychological and cultural challenges to enabling a rational discussion on climate change ( 22 February, p 28) . But he mistakenly suggested that the message for communicators to send is "that more flooding is on the way for the UK if ambitious action on climate change is not forthcoming". …

I fully support Lachlan Jones's comments on the conservation of oft-ignored creepy crawlies ( 15 February, p 34) . These often dull, brown, tiny and secretive critters should receive at least as much attention as the more charismatic species. After all, their place at the bottom of the ecological web means they support those more …

I have spent some time thinking about a response to your reporting of the culling of Marius the giraffe ( 15 February, p 7) . Make no mistake, animal rights protesters were not the only people to be dismayed by this action. I am not an animal rights protester, nor are most of my friends …

In order to reduce flooding, Hannah Cloke at the University of Reading, UK, suggests that we need to slow down the rate at which water enters our rivers ( 15 February, p 6) . Perhaps the development of robot tractors, which New Scientist has reported on over the years, could provide part of the answer. …

Mark Cox's letter about the decline in dementia rates contains the unjustifiably broad statement that high levels of corticosteroids cause the damage in vascular dementia and Alzheimer's ( 15 February, p 35) . The statement has little meaning, since "corticosteroids" means steroids produced by the adrenal cortex, including adrenal androgens, mineralocorticoids, such as aldosterone, and …

I found David Cooper's article on changes to European patent law illuminating ( 15 February, p 32) . A question arises that I have never had a good answer to: if the aim is to foster invention, why do patents grant a monopoly, rather than an obligatory licensing fee so that others can use a …

You reported on potatoes genetically modified to resist blight ( 22 February, p 6) . I have been growing the non-GM Hungarian variety Sarpo Mira for the past four years. Even when the potatoes in neighbouring allotment plots had severe blight in 2012, my crop stood strong and green until late in the season. It …

Your thought-provoking interview with cognitive scientist and ethicist Brian D. Earp about a cure for love was good ( 15 February, p 27) , but would have been improved by including a consideration of the various stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining or negotiation, depression and acceptance. The lengths of these stages probably depend …

Various explanations for the abstract patterns of dots and lines that have been found alongside cave paintings ( 23 November 2013, p 36) have been suggested by your readers. Modern humans also draw random patterns of dots and lines. It's called "doodling". I suggest that the cave artist was trying to stay awake during a …

Mark Turner's theory that humans differ from animals because they produce new ideas by blending old ones has two important issues ( 22 February, p 30) . First, the capacity to blend ideas appears much earlier in the fossil record than the Upper Palaeolithic. Jayne Wilkins of Arizona State University has shown that hominins seemed …

Despite articles by Lisa Grossman ( 8 February, p 8) and Marcus Chown ( p 41) and all other stories about black holes – there are no holes in the universe. There are irregularities, pits, whirls and so on, but no holes. So I suggest the black hole needs renaming. A black pit, maybe? Malmõ, …

• We were out of order to suggest bees, wasps and ants belong to the same family in our article on insect pheromones ( 25 January, p 17) . They all belong to the same order, Hymenoptera.