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6 January 2021
From Christine Duffill, Southampton, UK
Which of the different approaches to coronavirus for the festive season in Europe will have worked best? The most important factor at play will have been psychology ( 12 December 2020, p 12 ). The first wave of the virus was governed by fear, trust in science and broad compliance with the rules. Yet after …
6 January 2021
From Geoffrey Cox, Rotorua, New Zealand
The sale of valuable fossils to the highest bidder is unfortunate, but not new ( 28 November 2020, p 23 ). In 1861, when the first largely complete Archaeopteryx fossil was discovered, it was quickly acquired by collector Karl Haberlein, who made his fortune a year later when he sold it to the British Museum, …
6 January 2021
From Matthew Tucker, Sydney, Australia
To lead a country, large business or institution, you need people skills, often in a Machiavellian way ( 5 December 2020, p 34 ). This means you must be good at understanding other people's minds – in other words, you need a high degree of empathic ability. So, if Simon Baron-Cohen is right and there …
6 January 2021
From John Davnall, Manchester, UK
The assertion that the bone flute was "the beginnings of music" cannot go unchallenged. Humans can make music through their vocal cords, so no instrument is needed at all.
13 January 2021
From Rachel Mckeown, Aberfan, Mid Glamorgan, UK
You wonder why animals haven't evolved wheels ( 19/26 December 2020, p 50 ). It is worth noting that the body of an organism isn't the boundary of its phenotype. Richard Dawkins introduced the "extended phenotype" concept in which a cascade of causality ultimately stemming from genes can eventually lead to non-biological products, examples being …
13 January 2021
From Ian Flitcroft, Dublin, Ireland
The arguments cited against the evolution of wheels in living things include the problem of the environment not being smooth and the challenge of supplying blood to a biological wheel. Maybe there are exceptions. Tumbleweed lacks blood, but has evolved a rolling solution that is perfectly suited to its flat, desert environment. Its "wheeled" design …
13 January 2021
From Martin Jenkins, London, UK
Michael Marshall's article on why animals don't have wheels correctly addresses the issue that they are only useful on firm, flat surfaces, which are rare in nature, but perhaps misses the question: how did such surfaces come to be? In other words, in terms of human technological evolution, which came first, the wheel or the …
13 January 2021
From Liz Berry, Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, UK
In discussing the Drake equation, which estimates the likelihood of the existence of intelligent alien cultures, Tim Stevenson assumed that N – the number of advanced civilisations in our galaxy – was low, as we haven't heard from any such aliens ( Letters, 28 November 2020 ). With tongue in cheek, may I suggest that …
13 January 2021
From Jamie Pittock, Canberra, Australia
From 19/26 December 2020, p 12 While it would be nice to have a simple solution like birth control for feral horse populations, or to redefine them as beneficial, this risks exacerbating environmental degradation and loss of species. In Australia, our flora and fauna (for example, the corroboree frog) haven't evolved to cope with the …
13 January 2021
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
The clear message from your piece on military robots is that AIs will provide clearer and more logical decisions in warfare than their human minders could offer ( 12 December 2020, p 14 ). To extend the argument, we can imagine both sides in a conflict having such weaponry, with AI pitted against AI. As …
