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16 February 2022
From John Moore, Nelson, New Zealand
Perhaps contentment should trump happiness ( 22 January, p 38 ). The concept of happiness as a pursuit tends to suggest a relentless chase, perhaps for new experiences. Happiness itself is a transient and ephemeral emotion. In contrast, contentment is pervasive and readily understood. You do mention satisfaction in your article, but contentment is richer …
16 February 2022
Our look at sites that could mark the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch ( 29 January, p 14 ) should have used an image of Crawford Lake in Milton, Ontario, Canada
23 February 2022
From Carole Allsop and Tony Kaleda, London, UK
By coincidence, just after reading your article on the circular economy, our blender (only a few years old) stopped working ( 12 February, p 38 ). After attempts to repair it using YouTube videos, we have had to give up. It, like so many modern appliances, suffers from built-in obsolescence. To buy a new spice …
23 February 2022
From Steve Blyth, Roade, Northamptonshire, UK
I have a suggestion in response to your interesting article on the circular economy, "Waste not... want not?". There should be mandatory return of used items and packaging from end users via their suppliers to manufacturers. This could utilise delivery vehicle fleets on return trips, encourage design for disassembly and reuse (fostering the latter), reduce …
23 February 2022
From Rachael Padman, Cambridge, UK
Amid worries about energy price hikes, it is naive for anyone to think that the shift away from gas boilers to electrically powered heat pumps is going to save householders money on energy in the short or even medium term ( 12 February, p 12 ). Energy prices in the UK are set in a …
23 February 2022
From Mike Clarke, Castle Hedingham, Essex, UK
You report that some MPs are pushing hard to bring forward the ban on new gas boilers in England to speed up their replacement with air-source heat pumps and other systems within a couple of years. For these heat pumps, efficiency drops as the temperature falls and so the electricity demand rises . The electricity …
23 February 2022
From Talia Morris, Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
You report on a study on the two major groups of bats that claims the only significant difference between Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera is a single ear bone ( 5 February, p 25 ). However, the megabats, or Pteropodidae, have completely different brain structures and visual systems to both the rest of the Yinpterochiroptera and all …
23 February 2022
From William Hughes-Games, Waipara, New Zealand
Amid debate about the location with the best record of the start of the Anthropocene epoch, it could be argued that it started in Australia some 50,000 years ago, in America 12,000 years ago and in New Zealand 700 years ago, when the first people arrived ( 29 January, p 14 ). In a geological …
23 February 2022
From Paul Hield, Bristol, UK
I had to chuckle while reading the section "Does space-time commute?" in your feature on quantum reality ( 5 February, p 38 ). The example for classical space being commutative is that it doesn't matter if you travel 5 kilometres south and then 3 kilometres west or vice versa, you end up in the same …
23 February 2022
From James Bailey, Southampton, UK
For me, migraine involved a lot of nausea ( 29 January, p 38 ). There were times when I was actually sick. I discovered after some years that taking a travel sickness pill greatly reduced the nausea and made the headache symptoms more bearable.
