Join the conversation in New Scientist's Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
9 September 2020
From Martin Pitt, Leeds, UK
The latest ideas to explain the origin of cellular life may overlook the effects of turbulence and shear in liquids ( 8 August, p 34 ). These are what make dispersions, akin to mayonnaise, that can encapsulate chemicals in a film of oily substance without the need for self-assembly. Instead of cells arising from individual …
9 September 2020
From Tom Roberts, Derby, UK
A useful piece of advice that I have imparted to friends and relatives is that if you want to stop a piece of string or a cord from randomly tangling itself into a knot, then fasten the two loose ends together ( 8 August, p 46 ). I have also joked that there is a …
9 September 2020
Our description of punched cards in early digital computers was the wrong way round. A hole was a 1 and solid card represented a 0 ( 25 July, p 36 ).
16 September 2020
From John Gee, Capel Dewi, Carmarthenshire, UK
I was surprised to find Graham Lawton relishing the thought of a trip to an Ecological Society of America conference in California ( 22 August, p 24 ). If ecological groups, of all organisations, can't abandon their fixation with physical international conferences, then we really are in a pickle. Does the chance to exchange ideas …
16 September 2020
From Emma Lamerton, St Austell, Cornwall, UK
Your feature on unconscious bias mentions MRI experiments in which participants shown a face they saw as part of an out-group displayed increased activity in the amygdala, "the part of the brain that governs our threat response" ( 29 August, p 38 ). Are we sure this always means they are seeing that person as …
16 September 2020
From Keith Macpherson, Clevedon, Somerset, UK
You say that "using blind or anonymised hiring practices" may weaken unconscious bias. This reminds me of a tale, probably apocryphal, of the hiring methods of the chief pilot of an airline. The story goes that he would take the pile of application forms and throw them down the stairs. The applicant whose form went …
16 September 2020
From Simon Goodman, Griesheim, Germany
Michael Marshall notes that Russia's "Sputnik V" coronavirus vaccine hasn't started phase III clinical trials, but has already been approved there ( 22 August, p 11 ). Phase III assesses the efficacy of a medical treatment, and some 50 per cent of all medicines tested initially fail at this stage, so it is no small …
16 September 2020
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
You say that the lower age of those getting infected with covid-19 doesn't, on its own, explain the apparent decline in its deadliness ( 29 August, p 7 ). This is amid speculation of the rise of a less lethal strain. I favour a broader explanation for what we observe: we have effectively self-selected into …
16 September 2020
From Richard Jefferys, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, UK
Mark Harris asks: "Should billionaires be able to start tinkering with the climate without asking the rest of us?" Surely removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is pretty benign ( 5 September, p 18 ). Shouldn't we worry a whole lot more about the billionaires (and the rest of us) who are geoengineering the climate …
16 September 2020
The Vulcan character pictured in our look at the Star Trek franchise was Sarek, played by James Frain (5 September, p 34).
