Letters archive

From Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Govert Schilling's article on the Hubble Space Telescope implies that STScI senior management are looking for a way to boost Hubble's orbit (9 August, p 38) . It further implies that I have endorsed a Kickstarter campaign to save Hubble, and that such a …

From Roger Cook David Boswell makes a good point when suggesting small-scale water power to supply the UK's energy needs (2 August, p 30) . There are two water-powered generating plants near me, one at Grassington and the other in Burley in Wharfedale. The Grassington plant was installed in 1909 as a local initiative to …

From Matthew Davis I am not convinced that a future of cheap solar panels is a bad thing for Africa as suggested in Fred Pearce's comment article (2 August, p 26) . I recently purchased a cheap 10 watt solar panel and found it very effective at charging my smartphone as well as my tablet. …

From Bryn Glover In your article on fracking for shale gas in the UK, Andrew Aplin is quoted as saying that the worst impacts from fracking would arise from heavy lorries and waste water (2 August, p 6) . I disagree. The very worst impact from an exploratory "frack" would be the discovery of vast …

From Keith Davis Richard Webb's article about the search for magnetic monopoles (16 August, p 34) rang a bell, because I am old enough to remember a similar article written by Henry H. Kolm for Science Journal (which later merged with New Scientist ), in September 1968. Kolm bemoaned that fact that, despite three decades …

From Steve Hawkins Your interview with legal high developer Dr Z (9 August, p 26) came two days after a colleague, who is a hospital consultant in acute medicine, told me that mephedrone – developed by Dr Z – is occupying more and more of their resources. Dr Z says that he always tests a …

From Ron Barnes Anil Ananthaswamy's excellent article on separating a neutron from its spin left me greatly puzzled (26 July, p 32) . Is a neutron without its spin still a neutron, I wonder, or is it something else? Watlington, Norfolk, UK The editor replies: • The question is a really good one. The honest …

From Jack Harrison Hacking traffic lights isn't new (9 August, p 20) – we were doing it over 60 years ago. In those days, many traffic lights were activated by pneumatic strips across the road. The pressure as a vehicle passed over the strip would send a pulse of air to the controller. We youngsters …

From Chris Brooking The idea of locally recycling wastewater seems very attractive (16 August, p 38) . However, one issue not addressed in your article is that of drug residues in the water. There have been many studies showing that drugs aren't completely removed from conventionally treated sewage, including oestrogens from contraceptives, which have consequences …

From John Harvey It is not only in terrestrial systems that tomatoes can indicate the past presence of wastewater pollution (16 August, p 29) . I recall seeing pictures of tomato seeds on the seabed some kilometres off Liverpool. The density of seeds was being used as an indicator of the extent and intensity of …

• Drug discovery isn't all it's cracked up to be. Dr Z isn't the only person to have invented mephedrone (9 August, p 26). It was discovered in 1929, and a chemist known as "Kinetic" independently rediscovered it in recent years. Dr Z was the first to work out how to scale up production. • …