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2 March 2022
From Arthur Dahl, Geneva, Switzerland
While Catherine Collins rightly highlights fossil fuel emissions and overfishing as the sources of coral reef destruction, rejecting coral gardening is like denying the usefulness of a bandage in protecting a wound while it heals, or cancer surgery while we lack a cure for the disease ( 5 February, p 27 ). We need to …
2 March 2022
From Rob Saunders, Cranbrook, Kent, UK
Adam Vaughan's excellent review of ways of removing greenhouse gases from the air didn't mention biochar production, which could be deployed at scale ( 19 February, p 20 ). Pyrolysing (heating at high temperatures) organic materials under anaerobic conditions creates charcoal, which is called biochar when pulverised to gravel or dust-sized pieces and used as …
2 March 2022
From Geoff Russell, Adelaide, South Australia
To paraphrase the journalist H. L. Mencken, "for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" ( 12 February, p 38 ). So it is for materials and the circular economy. Consider two options. Produce 350,000 tonnes of very sophisticated materials, fabricate them into solar panels, then mount on metal …
2 March 2022
From Richard Brown, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, UK
I read again that 30 per cent of food is wasted. It is high time to bring back the pig to its rightful role of converting food waste into edible protein and fat. I know that the veterinary profession, of which I am a part, has been against swill feeding for decades, but this must …
9 March 2022
From Victoria Hiley, London, UK
The frequent discussions about converting land to forests in order to sequester carbon are missing something if they merely focus on using animal pasture to do so ( 19 February, p 20 ). In the UK, large chunks of land sitting unproductively under concrete could be used for new woodlands: car parks, both public and …
9 March 2022
From Chris Daniel,Glan Conwy, Conwy, UK
Alison George makes some good points about the long-term effects of poor posture on the body ( 19 February, p 42 ). As she says, one problem is our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, slouched on settees or hunched over our computers. But many of the problems are caused by poor furniture design. Sitting on a conventional …
9 March 2022
From David Hulme, Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK
I firmly believe that anxiety and stress lead to the inability to relax that can result in muscle and joint pain, not so-called bad posture. I have been an archer for 50 years, and the only shoulder and neck pain I experienced usually came from lack of practice, over-practice or bad technique and faulty shooting …
9 March 2022
From Peter Sutton, Guildford, Surrey, UK
As someone who has suffered with chronic pain and repetitive strain in my 30s and 40s, I read "Are you sitting comfortably?" with great interest. However, can I question the usefulness of the main trial quoted in the article? This was done with 17 to 22-year-olds. Surely such a young, fit and flexible population isn't …
9 March 2022
From Varun Goel, Cardiff, UK
As a sixth-form student, I was struck by your report that routine cervical swabs can also identify ovarian cancer and potentially also individuals at risk of developing this serious disease ( 12 February, p 23 ). Due to the early success of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, there has been a fall in the incidence …
9 March 2022
From Trevor Jones, Sheringham, Norfolk, UK
Regarding Hannah Cloke's look at the problems of communicating some vital science, I would say "failure of imagination" remains an issue more generally in Western science ( 26 February, p 25 ). Philosopher Henri Bergson and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist recognised two profoundly different ways of knowing: the method of analysis and the way of intuition. …
