Letters archive

Jamil Zaki defines cynicism as the "theory that, in general, humanity is selfish, greedy and dishonest" and deems holding it to be psychologically damaging. ( 17 August, p 36 ) However, it is fine to endorse the cynical belief that we belong to a deeply dysfunctional species if you include two caveats. These are that …

It is obvious that the eating of meat, particularly beef, must be reduced, but the problem of a rising world population and increasing average wealth and consumption demands every possible means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming. Although there has always been some resistance to consumption of genetically modified crops, the potential advantages, such …

It is unfortunate that the study that found "dark oxygen" produced by metallic nodules on the seabed is having such a quick and negative effect on potential deep-sea mining. This form of mining may be the least damaging way to get the metals we need for the transition to a low-carbon economy. The ecological effect …

It seems to me that NASA may be giving too little consideration to the nightmare scenario that de-orbiting the International Space Station could injure people on Earth. I would like to suggest that simply separating the 16 pressurised modules that make up the station and de-orbiting each separately would greatly reduce the overall risk.( 10 …

For a glorious finale for the ISS, adapt it for a Mars return mission. We could ensure there is adequate accommodation for five to six crew members, attach a thruster rocket and fuel, put general supplies in pods and add a lander for crew to visit the surface once in Mars orbit. They could then …

The gamma-ray burst GRB221009A is the brightest explosion astronomers have observed ( 3 August, p 13 ).

Webb Keane's anthropological account of morality in his book Animals, Robots, Gods encounters the familiar problem experienced by reductive explanations of the moral faculty. However sophisticated the concepts deployed, morality is explained away as essentially a social construct, a matter of social conditioning. I am given no reason, ultimately, why I must do the right …

High-frequency trading already demonstrates that the financial markets are nothing but a shell game profiting only the already ultra-rich and causing misery for the rest when they go off the rails. Making such trading even more volatile with quantum technology will only cause harm ( 17 August, p 14 ).

It is fascinating to consider the possibilities of quantum biology, but surely its existence would be no great surprise. It seems to me that nature is already functioning happily at all the "levels" we humans think we can discern, and many more we have yet to identify ( 10 August, p 18 ). Surely molecules, …

A 100-nanometre glass bead is a thousandth of the width of a human hair ( 31 August, p 16 ). Orkney is in Scotland, off the mainland ( 24 August, p 47 ).