Letters archive

Contemplating possible sentience in plants can lead one to imagine some strange possibilities ( 27 August, p 38 ). A magnificent species of Australian eucalyptus tree – the river red gum – recently topped a survey to be Australia's favourite tree. However, it has a reputation as a "widow maker" due to its propensity for …

Most writing on consciousness misses the point. All life is conscious, but each organism is conscious of different things. Bacteria are conscious of certain chemicals. Plants of chemicals and electricity. I am conscious of weight and various frequencies of light.

Your article posits that the Mimosa pudica plant's reaction to anaesthesia may represent plant sentience. However, a reduction in the mimosa's response to stimuli under anaesthesia doesn't imply a human-like consciousness. The more likely, and more interesting, possibility is that putting a plant to sleep may point to a similarity in chemosensory systems over a …

You report a rush to buy firewood in the UK amid rapidly rising gas prices, and highlight the pollution that will result from burning more wood ( 10 September, p 8 ). There is another issue: the relatively poor overall efficiency of wood-burning stoves. The wood needs to be dried and transported to the user, …

Caroline Williams raises some interesting points on taking hormone replacement therapy to reduce the negative impacts of the menopause, but doesn't mention the difficult situation faced by the substantial minority of women who have had breast cancer ( 3 September, p 38 ). Current estimates suggest that there are 600,000 such women in the UK …

It was a pleasure to read William MacAskill's article "Planning ahead", which reminds us that we don't just inherit Earth from our ancestors, but are its stewards for our descendants ( 10 September, p 27 ). I content myself with wanting to leave somewhere behind where my children will be able to thrive, without looking …

Much has been said about bias in decisions made by AI and the need to make it neutral and "fair" ( 10 September, p 47 ). In your interview with Paolo Benanti, he brings up the call to get women and children onto the lifeboats of the Titanic first, and suggests that AI should follow …

Bryn Glover questions the European and Russian space agencies designating a 1-sievert dose of radiation as acceptable for astronauts, which is estimated to equate to an average 5 per cent rise in cancer fatality risk ( Letters, 10 September ). Given the total number of astronauts and the number who have died in testing, on …

Several of your recent articles have mentioned battery types in development that could be charged quicker than previous systems – for example, quantum batteries ( 10 September, p 38 ). This would be very useful for electric vehicles, for instance. But all that stored energy has to come from somewhere. Fast charging means a high …

In the story "England faces a drier future", it was observed that households with water meters use 24 per cent less water than those without ( 20 August, p 9 ). You seem to imply that having a meter lowers usage. I suspect the causality is the other way around. Since water meters are optional, …