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26 August 2020
From Alastair Cardno, Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, UK
Reading Anders Sandberg and Thomas Moynihan's article on the 75th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan brought back other reflections from visiting these cities several years ago ( 8 August, p 21 ). Amid the heart-rending stories and factual accounts, I found it hard to understand why it …
26 August 2020
From John Stevens, Bad Münstereifel, Germany
The article promoting The Brain: A user's guide discusses the difficulty we face in making the right decision as our brains have inbuilt biases. However, it too falls foul of "blind-spot bias" when it assumes what constitutes a good decision. For example, when discussing the endowment effect, it fails to consider the emotional satisfaction an …
26 August 2020
From Grant Hutchison, Dundee, UK
Those of us who come from cultures in which one seldom, if ever, hugs a friend or relative have watched the covid-19-related agonising of the more hug-dependent with a mixture of sympathy and bemusement ( 8 August, p 11 ). This reached a crescendo for me with your story, which contained a detailed list of …
26 August 2020
From Robert Bywater, London, UK
I enjoyed reading "Life's big bang" and its new take on the origin of life on Earth ( 8 August, p 34 ). Michael Marshall covered a large part of recent research in this area, notably that by David Deamer, Jack Szostak and John Sutherland. But there were omissions. Marshall alludes to the widely accepted …
26 August 2020
From Simon Goodman, Griesheim, Germany
Your pandemic coverage asks: "What are the most promising medicines?" Vaccines are among them, but we don't yet know if they will work well ( 1 August, p 9 ). In any event, many people will be without a vaccine for a very long time. So, as you say, we also need therapeutics to treat …
2 September 2020
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
I have often mused on the origins of viruses and their mention in "Life's big bang" has simply added to my confusion ( 8 August, p 34 ). The article says that viruses "can't have come first". So when did they arise, simultaneously or later? If the latter, does this support the idea of some …
2 September 2020
From Ben Haller, Ithaca, New York
It is very exciting to hear that there are beetle larvae that can, with the help of their gut bacteria, digest polystyrene waste ( 25 July, p 14 ). Wei-Min Wu at Stanford University in California notes that they probably couldn't chew through the whole lot, since each larva only consumes a few milligrams per …
2 September 2020
From Jan Horton, West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Not all of us start equal in the "lose weight, get fit" stakes, as has been recommended to make us more resilient to the coronavirus ( 25 July, p 16 ). In my early 30s, with two young children, I regularly ran and competed in orienteering most weekends. Then I had a medical emergency: a …
2 September 2020
From Philip Ward, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
Environmental groups can't be sued by those who claim that they worsened climate change because they opposed nuclear plants, despite what Geoff Russell suggests ( Letters, 15 August ). They don't decide to close plants or not to build them, governments do. The opponents of nuclear power must not be suppressed by legal fiat. In …
2 September 2020
From Graham Jones, Bridgham, Norfolk, UK
The obvious solution to Linda Phillips's worries about the impact of extended border closures to combat the coronavirus is to test for it instead ( Letters, 8 August ). Once we have a functional testing infrastructure in place, it should be possible to test everyone entering a country. This will mean establishing facilities at every …
