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13 May 2020
From Lloyd Timberlake, Ridge, Maryland, US
Jessica Hamzelou's excellent piece on the science of the protective effects of face masks against the coronavirus inevitably didn't touch on unscientific, but important, aspects of masks, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends we wear in settings like grocery stores ( 18 April, p 11 ). Masks are a form …
13 May 2020
From Anne Brien, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
With Moya Sarner's article on the challenges to mental health during lockdown, one further group of particular concern is people who live alone ( 25 April, p 40 ). It is estimated that 15 per cent of the adult population of the UK, or 8.2 million people, are in one-person households. Like everyone, they are …
13 May 2020
From Brian Horton, West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
As reported, correlation and causation are very different beasts ( 25 April, p 32 ). An example was given, that ice cream sales are correlated with shark attacks rather than there being any causal link, such as ice cream attracting sharks. Having seen this correlation claimed many times, I suspect it is faulty. Sharks most …
13 May 2020
From Dieter Britz, Aarhus, Denmark
Might I point out that the idea of cultured meat is older than it may seem ( 22 February, p 39 ). I suggested this approach in 1971 in two letters to Nature ( vol 229, p 435 and vol 231, p 201). The idea was, of course, quashed as impractical by a biologist. I …
13 May 2020
Work showing that "phi" doesn't fall for sleep and general anaesthesia was published by Pedro Mediano (and others) before he joined Daniel Bor's lab, and the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences is in Lillehammer ( 2 May, p 40 ).
20 May 2020
From Will McNeill, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
As a model to inform our understanding of consciousness, integrated information theory sounds promising. Yet usually when a theory produces a conclusion that seems absurd – in this case that both the universe and simple data processing algorithms are conscious – the sensible working hypothesis is to suppose it is false.
20 May 2020
From Andy Howe, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
It seems a shame for the proposed integrated information theory (IIT) model of consciousness to stipulate that for something to be considered conscious this way, its consciousness has to be bigger than the degree of consciousness you could ascribe to any of its component parts. This appears to exclude what would seem an interesting and …
20 May 2020
From Nicholas Humphrey, Theoretical psychologist known for his work on the evolution of consciousness, Cambridge, UK
With consciousness, it seems that anything goes: no need to define terms or respect hard-fought-for philosophical distinctions. I disagree with the idea that integrated information theory is "our mathematically most mature theory of consciousness". It isn't a theory of consciousness, it is a theory of integrated information. It may conceivably have a bearing on intelligence, …
20 May 2020
From Rod Munday, Cardiff, UK
It was kind of you to lift some of the covid-19 gloom by publishing a whimsical article suggesting inanimate objects could possess consciousness. If I may be so bold as to propose a subject for a future article in the same vein: how about asking if electrons have free will? That might shed new light …
20 May 2020
From Shaun McCree, Seaford Meadows, South Australia
Diana George asks whether the increased uptake of vitamin D in Australia has resulted in our low infection rates from coronavirus (Letters, 2 May ). I'd say no, for two reasons. Firstly, most Australians avoid the sun because of the heat and its cancer-causing effects. Secondly, the lack of cases here probably has more to …
