Letters archive

From 12 December 2020, p 22 We should be cautious about casually linking the coronavirus pandemic to the devastation of biodiversity by people. Lifestyle changes affect which diseases find their niche in the human population, but modernisation and urbanisation don't increase our exposure to zoonotic diseases above that of our ancestors, rather the opposite. It …

Regarding the new virus variants, several experts have said that it would only take a few weeks to tweak vaccines to cope with them ( 9 January, p 8 ). What isn't clear is whether such a modified vaccine would require another lengthy programme of retesting, which may take months.

The UK seems to be applying a lockdown approach to covid-19 that initiates an unstoppable swing between low and high levels of infection ( 5 December 2020, p 9 ). We must dampen this "motion". Having lowered levels of covid-19 during lockdown, we should gradually reduce restrictions over an extended period, rather than rapidly, to …

Thanks to Robert J. Sternberg for his critical examination of the reliance on IQ as a guide to someone's potential ( 16 January, p 36 ). At the height of the Rubik's cube craze, I taught a class of 14-year-olds – our "bottom set". They could rationalise a cube faster than I could follow them. …

I think my dad summarised your article about how we view intelligence in one sentence. He said: "You go to university to learn more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing."

You report on the decision of the UK government to delay second doses of covid-19 vaccines for 12 weeks in order to get a first dose to more people ( 16 January, p 8 ). The British Medical Association has come out against this plan, saying that the strategy to delay second doses of the …

Your report says that the "more infectious coronavirus variant from the UK has gone global" ( 23 January, p 11 ). This implies that it has spread from a person in the UK, thought to be living in the Kent area. However, since its greater infectiousness may only involve one key mutation, it surely would …

While the English village of Eyam is famous for its quarantine in response to plague in 1665, the word itself comes from 14th-century Venice, when the crews of ships were isolated for 40 days after arrival to minimise the risk of transmitting bubonic plague ( 9 January, p 38 ).

From 16 January, p 23 Your generally upbeat comment on the progress of electric vehicles, and their contribution to local and global health, doesn't mention that half of the electricity for charging currently comes from fossil fuels. Looking to 2030, and the ban on the sale of new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the UK, there …

In discussing the metal content of certain plants as a means to "farm" mineral resources you say that "for decades, these plants were regarded as mere curiosities" ( 9 January, p 42 ). However, the related science of geobotany goes back a fair way. The Romans were aware that some plants reflected the underlying geology …