Letters archive

You ask why we move forward in time and make it clear that physics has no clear answer as to why time passes ( 5 September, p 34 ). The article reminded me of an ancient Zen koan. Two monks were watching a flag flapping in the wind. One said to the other, "The flag …

You report moves in the UK to prevent oversubscribing of antibiotics to curb resistant infections ( 22 August, p 6 ). People with cystic fibrosis spend their entire lives fighting off infection to slow the progression of lung disease. Nine out of ten people with the condition eventually die from respiratory failure. Antimicrobial resistance poses …

If I saw my own genome, I couldn't read it Russell Bushby is sceptical of a "right to see our dead relatives' genomes" ( 5 September, p 26 )

New Scientist recently considered conundrums such as the imbalance between matter and antimatter, the "arrow of time", and the concept of "before the big bang" ( 5 September, p 30 ). Might some of these be resolved, or at least recast, if the big bang created two universes simultaneously: one of matter progressing in a …

I agree with Peter Halligan and David Oakley that consciousness plays a key role when it comes to communicating with others in a creature's social milieu ( 15 August, p 26 ). I suspect, however, that this is a secondary benefit rather than the primary evolutionary driver. In virtually all discussions on consciousness the emphasis …

When you truly accept that minds are embodied then there are no unconscious processes. Instead, my conscious states are how my body feels as it encounters the world and acts on it. We can now see how the counter-intuitive argument that consciousness is disconnected from our actions is an artefact caused by the dissection of …

An internal narrative for social benefit doesn't actually require consciousness: it could simply be facilitated by a collaboration between unconscious processes. In that case we would be a species of zombie (in the philosophical not the filmic sense). We are still left wondering why we have a sense of self that is exquisitely and individually …

Adrian Bowyer makes an interesting point that either individuals and the people who police them are responsible for what they do, or nobody is (Letters, 8 August ). I think, though, that this reasoning can be taken further. Surely, if we all have no control over our actions, then we also have no control over …

Geraldine Thomas may have misunderstood "public anxiety over nuclear power" ( 22 August, p 26 ). I suspect that the problem is simply that from long experience people just do not believe the industry's repeated attempts at public relations. The endemic culture of secrecy, obfuscation and plain lying about safety incidents doesn't inspire confidence. Fatuous …

Thomas makes a good case for the safety of nuclear power but misses one reason for public mistrust of the nuclear industry. Its representatives on TV in the 1960s told us how completely safe nuclear power was, and that there could not possibly be any kind of serious accident. This was despite the fact that …

Regardless of whether people make unreasonable associations between nuclear power and nuclear war, or harbour unreasonable fears of small doses of radiation, it is entirely reasonable for them to fear being made homeless. Compare the area of the exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl reactors in Ukraine with southern England. The risk of …

You report astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe saying that genetic material and living organisms are continually exchanged between Earth and neighbouring star systems ( 8 August, p 28 ). Is this a two-way exchange? If so, it's hard to reconcile with the report on the same page of a balloon that, following a meteor shower "returned with …

I may be able to help explain Bob Trenkamp's observation that a standing position using leg muscles for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) seemed to be lost for decades after failing to catch on ( 8 August, p 23 ). As a 14-year-old in 1973 I realised that young people, as well as older people, may not …

• We meant to say that Ebola threatens western lowland gorillas ( 5 September, p 12 ). • Some adjustment needed: at the size we printed the stereoscopic images of gibbon skeletons, you need to unfocus your eyes, not cross them, to try to see the 3D effect ( 5 September, p 24 ).