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19 January 2022
From Brian Horton, West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
In the article exploring a new way to solve paradoxes, some examples, such as the liar paradox, were shown to be a result of statements being necessarily either true or false ( 8 January, p 44 ). The idea of dialetheism was introduced, where a statement may be both true and false at the same …
19 January 2022
From Shawn Charland, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Much has been made of the cost of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope ( 11 December, p 36 ). My antennae came out when I read that the mission was jeopardised by its price ballooning from $500 million to nearly $10 billion. We didn't send $10 billion into space. I would be surprised …
19 January 2022
Helen Albert wrote our story on the reliability of preclinical cancer biology research ( 18/25 December 2021, p 14 ) The Cartographers, included in our round-up of sci-fi books for 2022 ( 1 January, p 33 ), is published by William Morrow
26 January 2022
From James Buzolic, Coolum Beach, Queensland, Australia
Miriam Frankel ended her article on how to alter your personality with a call for self-acceptance ( 15 January, p 46 ). I would echo that. Ratings for the big five personality traits all start at 0 and go to 100 per cent, and the assumption seems to be that it is desirable to score …
26 January 2022
From John Carpenter, Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, UK
Graham Lawton's article on alcohol-free and low-alcohol beers was fascinating ( 8 January, p 34 ). In the late 1980s, when I was a pharmacology lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK, a large brewery company asked me and my late colleague, John Rees, to look at the relationship between consumption of low-alcohol beer (1 …
26 January 2022
From Michael Peel, London, UK
The idea of conducting life virtually in a metaverse is unappealing on various grounds ( 8 January, p 39 ). Above all, if there is one thing we have learned from the pandemic, it is the importance of interpersonal contact. The technology of the virtual hug is a long way away. It would be very …
26 January 2022
From David Thorpe,Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, UK
Your mention of the Jevons paradox, the shift to greater energy use despite improvements in energy efficiency, illustrates the fallacy of relying on logic alone ( 8 January, p 44 ). While the example of continually increasing internet usage cancelling out any efficiency gains does have logic behind it, this isn't the case for all …
26 January 2022
From Susan Hinton, Santa Clara, California, US
As a Californian who, over the years, has seen earthquake, fire and flooding damage, I see a super-sized problem with the idea of supergrids for electrical supply ( 1 January, p 8 ). A single fit of nature, be it extreme winds or a sizeable earthquake, could take down an entire solar farm in one …
26 January 2022
From Richard Swifte, Darmstadt, Germany
Regarding Steven Pinker's stated key mechanisms for irrational beliefs, I think the potential loss of self-esteem is also a key factor in many people clinging to such beliefs in the face of reason ( 11 December 2021, p 46 ). There are many examples of scientists, who one would expect to always base their opinions …
26 January 2022
David Strachan,Llanbister, Powys, UK If Occam's razor is the best tool in seeking simpler answers to the question of how life and the universe work ( 18/25 December, p 70 ), as Johnjoe McFadden says, is it time to apply it to 11-dimensional string theory and some other opaque and complex ideas in quantum physics?
