Letters archive

Your article contrasting two types of leadership – prestige and dominance – emphasised style over substance ( 4 July, p30 ). Someone's past and promised actions and agenda are important criteria when people consider that person for leadership. I would hope many would reject a leader who denied science, vilified immigrants and placed children in …

One major difference between leaders of countries and leaders of more traditional, small-scale societies is that the latter have to interact with their followers in person and command their respect or they won't remain leader for very long. National political leaders don't necessarily require the same qualities. With a good team behind them to help …

In "How to sit", the authors suggest that squatting might maintain enough muscle activity to prevent triglyceride build up and lessen risk of cardiovascular disease ( 18 July, p28 ). They cite the Hadza of Tanzania as an example. The Hadza diet is very fibre-rich. The microbiomes of individuals have been studied and they have …

The problem with how many of us sit may be a desk or table problem. If we are to squat on the floor to improve health, we would need desks that are much lower.

The solution to the problems of developing a coronavirus contact tracing app in the UK for multiple devices could be to develop a single wearable packaged as a watch, brooch or key fob ( Letters, 4 July ). It would have to be backed up by a central database, but that would be under NHS …

You list places where the virus has almost been eliminated, including Iceland, Taiwan and New Zealand ( 25 July, p10 ). In Western Australia, the virus has been eliminated too – the few cases are inbound travellers who are in quarantine. As a result, life has returned to near normal. The hard lockdown of the …

I was a little surprised that Claudia de Rham's article on new ideas about gravity made no mention of dark energy ( 11 July, p30 ). It seemed to be the logical next step to wonder, if gravitons have mass, and thus have finite range, whether there is any need, in considering the expansion of …

If gravity does have mass, as de Rham suggests, how does it escape a black hole?

Further to your story "Circles in space are like nothing we've ever seen" about inexplicable radio signals spotted by astronomers ( 11 July, p14 ). Could they result from gravitational lensing of other objects?

Andrew Wight was the author of the article on links between drug cartels and deforestation in Guatemala ( 11 July, p17 ). Teijin is Elitac's partner company in developing a vibrating belt for navigation use ( 25 July, p15 ).