Letters archive

"A perfect storm of shifting demographics" dramatically overstates the demographic issues in Scotland (31 May, p 15) . As someone quoted in the article, I'd like to clarify a few issues. Across the Western world, baby boomer cohorts are retiring, with serious macroeconomic consequences. Scotland is relatively well placed against international comparisons, with a less …

I read with great interest Michael Brooks's article on the potential impact of eurosceptic parties on UK research (31 May, p 28) . UK Independence Party (UKIP) policies are very pro-science, especially regarding research and development. What Brooks fails to put into the equation is the £150 billion that will be freed up when the …

Michael Brooks makes the argument that disenchantment with the EU, recently expressed in European elections, will negatively affect UK science on the basis that for every £1 we contribute in research funding, we get £1.40 back. This calculation excludes the costs to UK science of having to compete in a dog-eat-dog circus of labyrinthine complexity. …

Tragically, microbial classism is still alive. Jop de Vrieze managed to get through a whole article about his microbiome without mentioning the other important contributors to his microbial health: archaea, fungi and bacteriophages (17 May, p 42) . Since archaea are the producers of the methane he may happily expel as a greenhouse gas, we …

Jeremy Rifkin contends that the not-for-profit sector is an institutional mechanism that neither government nor private enterprise provides (31 May, p 48) . Putting aside the fact that that much of this "third sector" is directly funded by governments, and that many of the elements Rifkin cites, such as education and healthcare, are contracted out …

This point was raised during our interview with Rifkin, but unfortunately space did not permit elaboration. For those interested, the issue is covered in chapter 14 of his book The Zero Marginal Cost Society .

As an archer of more than 40 years, I realise after reading Douglas Heaven's article on obsessive gaming that the target face is the archer's fruit machine (31 May, p 38) . I have often said to beginners that the sport can be addictive. Archery relies on repetition and conditioning, with a clear and colourful …

David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto expouse an idea that is increasingly common: that the universe and all its minute particulars are somehow "information" (24 May, p 30) . A lot of fancy footwork has gone into this concept, which so far has not produced much beyond attempts to shoehorn physical processes into a metaphysical system …

I enjoyed Stephen Battersby's article on exploring the methane lakes of Titan (24 May, p 44) . It seems that a well-aimed radar sweep by Cassini over Kraken Mare, timed to coincide with the predicted tidal surge, might well detect tides, waves and even the theorised whirlpool at the Throat of Kraken. Let's hope the …

In order to investigate whether or not the human capacity for language is innate, Jennifer Culbertson and David Adger constructed an articial language (5 April, p 11) . I would argue that it is not plausible to construct an artificial language within a natural one and expect native speakers to disregard their previous experience. Specifically, …

Valerie Moyses writes of "kamikaze" pigeons crashing into her bedroom window (24 May, p 33) . I had the same problem. Having seen stickers in the shape of birds of prey attached to a transparent noise barrier at the side of a Polish highway, I found a source of these stickers in the UK. Before …

Lawrence d'Oliveiro suggests that Shakespeare's creativity was unaffected by the lack of intellectual property laws (24 May, p 32) . However, a significant amount of his finanical support came through patronage, from aristocrats and likely the court. It is worth rereading Shakespeare's history plays in particular with this in mind. What more might he have …

Morality is uniquely human, because no other species can spell out its "moral reasoning" or choose to change its morality (24 May, p 48) . Tigers undoubtedly have innate constraints on their behaviours, at least towards other tigers, but this is not the same as having morality. There are no vegetarian tigers, not just because …

Stuart Leslie argues that patents on technology allowed James Watt to finance the development of the steam engine (10 May, p 30) . However, Watt never invented anything resembling the modern steam engine. Watt's design was an incremental advancement on Thomas Newcomen's engine from about 70 years earlier, which used steam at atmospheric pressure.Watt's main …

• We misspelled the name of the Bangladeshi smartphone app for recording sexual harassment (31 May, p 21). It is called Protibadi. • Those reading our feature on paracetamol (31 May, p 34) may have found the stated maximum daily dose hard to swallow. It should have read six to eight 500 mg tablets – …