Letters archive

Caroline Williams says that we are more likely to make bad choices when we are more stressed ( 27 July, p 34 ). She positions this in the context of choices we make about our health, between behaviours geared towards long-term goals, such as eating vegetables and exercising, and the short-term pleasures of chocolate, beer …

David Fitzgerald worries that the frequency of computer terms in neuroscience indicates a bias in research methods ( Letters , 13 July ). Rest assured that most neuroscientists are careful to make a distinction between the models we use to understand our data and the metaphors we use to explain our work to the general …

You report that certain whales whisper to their calves to avoid alerting predators ( 27 July, p 17 ), and that mother orangutans instruct their offspring to move on with a loud scratch ( 20 July, p 19 ). I wonder how many other animals use similar anti-predator tactics. I know the deer around my …

David Robson presents several ideas for how language might have begun ( 4 May, p 34 ). There are two more facts to consider. Twin babies often create languages. When left alone together for long periods, they spontaneously babble. This acquires form and meaning and becomes a private language – usually abandoned as they learn …

You say each proposed wind farm hub in the North Sea will power up to 12 million UK homes ( 20 July, p 10 ). You don't mention how many days of the year there is enough wind for it to power that number, nor how much fuel will be consumed by power stations standing …

Anil Ananthaswamy reports that two different ways of measuring the present-day expansion of the universe produce different values of the Hubble constant ( 20 July, p 34 ). This brings to mind the principle that measurement changes the phenomenon observed at the quantum scale. The current mess of string theory suggests this may be happening …

I love all your articles about the 1969 moon landing ( 13 July, p 36 ). I was a close observer at that time at Electronic Associates , a company that helped it happen. Digital computers of that time weren't fast enough to do the critical calculations determining the time to ignite the engines and …

I read with great interest that Europe once had its own version of a giant ostrich ( 6 July, p 17 ). I treasure a book given to me by Alice Margaret Leaker, the granddaughter of Alice McKenzie. She recalled being the last person on our planet to see a live moa, under a flax …

Simon Ings observes that The Hummingbird Project is scripted and filmed like a true-life story, and asks who would make up a thriller about high-frequency trading infrastructures ( 13 July, p 30 ). He says the film springs entirely from the head of writer-director Kim Nguyen. Has Nguyen not read Flash Boys: A Wall Street …

• Mixed messages: one air food mile is the equivalent of over 75 food shipping miles ( August, p 24 ).