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26 February 2020
From :
Paul Dorfman, University College London Energy Institute , UK; Tom Burke, E3G ; Steve Thomas, University of Greenwich, UK ; Jonathan Porritt, environmental campaigner ; and David Lowry, Institute for Resource and Security Studies , Cambridge, Massachusetts, US Reporting the decline of nuclear power generation, you quote Michael Shellenberger's view that nuclear power is necessary …
4 March 2020
From Paul Mealing, Melbourne, Australia
Your collection of articles on reality was informative ( 1 February, p 39 ). Most provocative was Alison George reporting Donald Hoffman's claim that nothing we perceive resembles reality and we are "born with a virtual reality headset on". He says evolution gave us this to simplify things so we had "what we need to …
4 March 2020
From Alan Moskwa, Adelaide, South Australia
Clare Wilson says that educating people about sexual health is more important than policing their language to prevent them referring to the vulva as the vagina ( 11 January, p 30 ). Yet that is akin to calling the lips the throat. Such errors can lead to serious misunderstandings. One of my patients was convinced …
4 March 2020
From Krista Nelson, Rokeby, Tasmania, Australia
I am amazed that some Wikipedia editors deem female scientists to be "not notable enough for inclusion" ( 8 February, p 46 ). Many characters from anime films have their own pages, even supporting characters.
4 March 2020
From Colin Walls, Sidmouth, Devon, UK
People are intrigued by the Canadian frogs that freeze in winter and thaw out in summer (Letters, 11 January ). Are they alive or not? It sounds like a deep philosophical question, but it isn't. "Life" is a collective noun for things that are living. Things transition from being dead to alive all the time. …
4 March 2020
From Peter Asher, Malibu, California, US
You report that arm heaters that keep hands warm without gloves are being developed by the US Army ( 18 January, p 14 ). Let me assure the researchers that there is a large non-military community to whom this invention would be of incalculable benefit: musicians. At any outdoor gig in cool weather – or …
4 March 2020
From William Hughes-Games, Waipara, New Zealand
Michael Marshall reports on fears that a conference on scientific reproducibility has a hidden agenda to create doubt about climate change and hence support the fossil fuel industry ( 1 February, p 11 ). If so, its organisers are fighting a rearguard action to try to delay their retreat. Wind and solar is now less …
4 March 2020
From John Morris, Avoca Beach, New South Wales, Australia
There is obviously some question about how the earliest settlers crossed seaways en route to northern Australia ( 25 January, p 38 ). In the 1950s, I was a surveyor in Papua. Coastal peoples there made large dugout canoes and joined three of them together to form lakatois well before European settlement. These canoes were …
4 March 2020
From Mike Bell, Woolacombe, Devon, UK
Paul Leek says dark matter and dark energy are "imaginary constructs" and links them with the big bang theory (Letters, 8 February ). It is my understanding that dark matter is postulated because galaxies are observed to be spinning too fast for the gravity of the observable matter, as required by Einstein's theory of general …
4 March 2020
• The chart in the online version of our article on stress shows negative effects of stress that people experienced over their lifetimes ( bit.ly/NS-stress ). • None of the substances found in commercial xylene is especially toxic, but they may be precursors of toxic chemicals ( 25 January, p 11 ).
