From Anthony Forbes, Durban, South Africa
Fred Pearce speculates on whether a present-day journal would publish a paper submitted by a janitor with no formal education, like James Croll, discoverer of how ice ages happen (25 August, p 34). Philip Stander, the author of Vanishing Kings: Lions of the Namib desert, collaborated with the Ju/'Hoansi people of north-eastern Namibia to study the melding of tranquilliser dart technology with indigenous bows and arrows. This produced a paper in the African Journal of Ecology, co-authored by three Ju/'Hoansi. Stander believes this was the first time the publishers permitted illiterate co-authors to be named.
