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10 July 2019
From Guy Inchbald, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, UK
Rowan Hooper, with help from philosophers Patricia Churchland and Daniel Dennett, does a great disservice to "the hard problem" in the theory of mind. ( 22 June, p 34 ) Were "qualia", the experiential qualities of consciousness, so easily dismissed as the maunderings of the spooky-minded, the problem would never have become so notoriously difficult. …
10 July 2019
From Trevor Hussey, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK
"What is consciousness?" isn't answered by saying how it is produced and where in the brain this happens , unless we start by assuming we know the answer. If it is just neural activity, there is nothing more to explain. But if I am sad, feeling guilt or in pain and I describe the accompanying …
10 July 2019
From David Fitzgerald,Margate, Kent, UK
It was interesting how much of your article on the human brain was littered with computer analogies. I suspect some future human brains will shake their formidable heads at this, reflecting on how each generation tries to explain things with the mechanism of their day.
10 July 2019
• The area in which ammonia was detected on Pluto is about 200 kilometres wide ( 8 June, p 18 ). • Earth takes 23 hours 56 minutes to complete one rotation and Mars takes 24 hours 37 minutes ( 15 June, p 38 ).
10 July 2019
From Lucia Singer, Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK
In his article on how New Scientist covered a proposed solution to the hole in the ozone layer in 1994, Simon Ings says concern about climate change was then the "preserve of a fringe few" (From the archives, 1 June ). Even in the 1980s, global warming was mainstream enough for my teenage friends and …
10 July 2019
From Merlin Reader, London, UK
Guy Cox says "able" pupils aren't challenged in non-selective schools (Letters, 15 June ). But most people are able in different ways. As I was good at maths, I could take an exam two years early at my non-selective school thanks to the Secondary Mathematics Individualised Learning Experiment , set up by the Inner London …
17 July 2019
From David Werdegar, Naperville, Illinois, US
You describe eight wonders of the human brain ( 22 June, p 34 ). There is a ninth, without which the other eight would be trivial: our absolute dependency on the signs and symbols of language. Our internalisation of the world around us, substituting symbols for reality using rules adopted by each culture, has become …
17 July 2019
From Gerald Legg, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK
I was interested to read your report on spiders that produce nutritious milk-like fluids, which said "milk secretion is exclusive to mammals" ( 8 December 2018, p 20 ). I work on pseudoscorpions, which, like spiders, are arachnids. They don't lay eggs but possess sophisticated reproductive strategies that involve embryos and larvae being attached to …
17 July 2019
From Simon Goodman, Griesheim, Germany
Paul Whiteley claims the reason for the anger of the gilets jaunes protesters in France was the "incompetent and arbitrary" imposition of fuel taxes by president Emmanuel Macron (Letters, 15 June ). I, too, hate taxes, but they will support progress against climate change, which is hardly a "nebulous concept". Fuel taxes have been shown …
17 July 2019
From Chris Sheppard, Ulladulla, New South Wales, Australia
Calls to replace politicians selected by the people with informed benevolent dictatorship (as in the Citizen Councils that Whiteley says Extinction Rebellion wants) have been made before by those with simple solutions to complex problems. The Russian Revolution comes to mind. The editor writes: Extinction Rebellion in fact demands a "citizens' assembly" that would make …
