Letters archive

Pat Kane writes that empathy "is one of the few aspects of professional roles that... might survive incremental transformation by information technology" ( 21 November 2015, p 42 ). Perhaps the premise is that empathy is an insignificant aspect of what professionals do, hence the prediction that the work of lawyers, doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, …

Do scientists need training in talking to the media? As a scientist I understand why experts who are asked, "Was Storm Desmond caused by climate change?" answer: "It's impossible to say whether a particular flood event is or isn't caused by climate change" ( 12 December 2015, p 6 ). But it really doesn't help. …

Maybe it's already happened and they're just allowing us to discover it for ourselves now Terry Braine suggests that the idea of implanting memories may be disquieting ( 19 December 2015, p 28 )

You interviewed Randall Munroe about his effort to describe things in simple language ( 28 November 2015, p 32 ). Languages with smaller vocabularies have long described items that their speakers have not encountered before with constructions such as "iron bird" for aeroplane. Larger languages also use this method: consider the French chemin de fer …

The US Food and Drug Administration has ruled that a fast-growing genetically modified Atlantic salmon is safe to eat ( 28 November 2015, p 9 ). That may be so. But if it grows so quickly, will it provide the health benefits of Atlantic salmon to those who consume it? Will it have the same …

I was disappointed that your article "Safer sex work" ( 12 December 2015, p 26 ) did not consider the harm prostitution causes. History shows that people will do anything if they need the money: in the past, parents sent their children to work down coal mines or risked life and limb working long hours …

As the person who wrote the costing model used by British Airways in the days of Concorde, could I point out that Joshua Howgego got the wrong end of the stick in calling Concorde the classic example of the sunk-cost fallacy ( 12 December 2015, p 31 )? While it is true that the governments …

Your news item on Late Stone Age rock etchings ( 5 December 2015, p 17 ) called to mind the "cup-and-ring" stone markings which are common here in the north of England and elsewhere. These are typically a circular groove 60 to 100 millimetres in diameter, with a small break where the groove has not …

I cheer the crew of the JOIDES Resolution and hope their drill makes it through the Earth's mantle ( 5 December 2015, p 7 ). They are not, however, the first geologists to try to drill through the Mohorovicic boundary. From 1958 to 1966 the American Miscellaneous Society ran the Moho project to achieve this. …

• There was no space in that small column to allude to our previous coverage of Moho – for example, ( 27 February 1964, p 534 ) – and of the Kola project ( 5 October 1991, p 15 ).

The headline "Around the world in 80 microseconds", which appeared in your story on internet architecture, was somewhat optimistic – to say the least ( 12 December 2015, p 38 ). Take Earth's circumference to be 40,000 kilometres: covering it in 80 microseconds would require travelling at approximately 1700 times the speed of light in …

David Hambling's discussion of less-lethal weapons was interesting and enjoyable ( 28 November 2015, p 30 ). It inspired me to make a tongue-in-cheeky "safe-ish" suggestion: why not a net-firing gun? A net projectile attached to pull cords would cover the culprit when fired. The cords would tighten the net in such a way as …

• It has been tried, for example by the New York Police Department ( 3 May 1997, p 7 ). We note, however, the lack of triumphant updates.

Steve Tunn discusses computer algorithms selecting job applicants (Letters, 12 December 2015 ). This reminds me of the human resources person who would randomly consign half the CVs they received to the wastebasket, with the explanation "who would want to employ anyone that unlucky?" Maybe the same applies in the algorithmic era too? Taunton, Somerset, …

• The Autism Sisters Project wants to contact families, initially in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, that have a son or daughter with autism and an unaffected sister ( 12 December 2015, p 27 ).