• In our illustration of the Earth circling the sun and galaxy (26 April, p 14), the arrow showing the sun’s direction orbiting the galaxy should have been pointing up; accordingly, our planet should have been shown closer to the centre of the galaxy in June, not December. In addition, the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun is actually tilted steeply – around 70 degrees – relative to the plane of the galaxy so the Earth’s forward velocity along the plane of the galaxy in June is around 10 per cent faster, not 30 per cent as we said.
• We said that the lowering of the human larynx created “two tubes of roughly equal size, one above and one below the larynx” (24 May, p 28). It did create two tube-like parts, but both are above the larynx: the pharynx (upper throat) and the mouth cavity itself.
