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12 January 2022
From Talia Morris, Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
From 18/25 December 2021, p 72 Your article on the reasons why we laugh mentions several species of mammal that laugh, or at least produce laugh-like vocalisations. Unsurprisingly, bats weren't mentioned. However, here at the Cape Tribulation Tropical Research Station where I work, we have frequently observed spectacled flying foxes ( Pteropus conspicillatus ) bursting …
12 January 2022
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
Your two references to snowflakes put me in mind of a question I posed some years ago ( 18/25 December 2021, p 58 and 81 ). Accepting that no two snowflakes are identical (at least, in nature), but recognising that the six arms of any one flake are as near identical as we can tell, …
12 January 2022
From Chloe Sellwood, London, UK
Catherine de Lange's article about strategies to deal with stress resonated with me from a personal and work perspective ( 4 December 2021, p 38 ). I have "retrained" myself to interpret anxiety at the start of a race (be it 5 kilometres, a marathon or longer) as excitement, and I am trying to do …
12 January 2022
From John Vaughan, York, UK
I was going to take issue with James Wong's assertion that wasted food could feed 2 billion people ( 4 December 2021, p 28 ). I was going to say that, in the studies I have seen, the idea that one-third of all food is wasted is only true if you include the parts often …
19 January 2022
From John Park, Farnborough, Hampshire, UK
It is increasingly evident that invasion into ecosystems can have unforeseen global consequences ( p 9 18/25 December 2021 , and p 56 18/25 December 2021 ). The articles "Race to start commercial deep-sea mining endangers ecosystems" and "A whiff of the past", which details the historical decline of marine ecosystems, must surely be evidence …
19 January 2022
From Andy Couldwell, Eyam, Derbyshire, UK
If "we are driven to overeat because we are getting fatter", as David S. ( 8 January, p 21 ) Ludwig argues, where does the fat come from in the first place? Articles that are meant to challenge or entertain us in this field usually deride calories. I suspect that calories are probably exactly the …
19 January 2022
From Adam Grassly, London, UK
The idea of engineering a benevolent SARS-CoV-2 virus to wipe out an older, more harmful variant is interesting ( Letters, 1 January ). However, it poses a few challenges. Engineering a variant that is more transmissible could go hand in hand with improving its ability to invade host cells, with a possible risk of causing …
19 January 2022
From Richard Wilson, Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK
Johnjoe McFadden claims that "Occam's razor isn't just a tool of science – it is science" ( 18/25 December 2021, p 70 ). This is a cut too far! Science is imaginative theory-building with careful, innovative experimentation that provides reproducible evidence against which theoretical predictions are measured in order to increase our body of knowledge …
19 January 2022
From Ian Glendon, Ashmore, Queensland, Australia
Regarding your word search grid of 3312 letters with 155 hidden words ( 18/25 December 2021, p 43 ). We have found around 100 elements, but while masses of tin is in evidence, we are still seeking silver and gold. On the plus side, we have found 11 new elements, four new amino acids and …
19 January 2022
From Hugh Boyd, Bishopthorpe, North Yorkshire, UK
The proposal to replace 20 per cent of pastureland used for beef cattle in the UK with trees is attractive to vegans and initially appears to be environmentally beneficial ( 11 December 2021, p 9 ). However, we need to consider various viewpoints. The land chosen for forestry will, inevitably, be the least agriculturally productive, …
