Letters archive

Chris deSilva is right to be cautious about carbon capture and storage, or CCS (Letters, 2 March ). It will be expensive, especially when used to capture carbon from the air, and we will need to ensure the long-term integrity of underground storage. But what is the alternative? Some chemical processes, notably cement production, release …

I had vaccines as a teenager. I started dressing in black and writing really dark poetry ... Alice met the Master parodies the arguments of those who attribute autism to vaccines, despite research ( 9 March, p 6 )

Joshua Howgego reports how unemployed people in Finland who received a universal basic income perceived their health and stress levels to be improved ( 16 February, p 10 ). It isn't only unemployed people who are stressed when they must prove they are looking for a job to receive unemployment benefit. Employers sometimes receive over …

I appeal for any young or experienced scientist to consider applying for the role of Green & Away's scientist in residence. Our charity runs the leading outdoor environmental venue in the UK, near Worcester. We welcome applications from scientists in any discipline, including ecology, economics, chemistry, physics, biology, anthropology, astronomy, psychology or sociology. The scientist …

You observe that researchers are struggling to find out how people are influenced by disinformation (Leader, 23 February ). I would add to this nice piece that fake news is not an internet phenomenon. It has always used whatever medium is available. You have only to pick up a copy of some newspapers to realise …

I lived in the Indonesian province of Papua on the island of New Guinea for two years in the 1990s. In Jayapura, I saw Dani women from the Baliem Valley who had amputated fingers in mourning for relatives. So it is interesting to read Margaret McGovern's note on the same practice in parts of Canada …

Scott McNeil notes that people from different places want open plan offices to have different temperatures (Letters, 2 March ). There is a gender difference too: women who want or are required to dress fashionably may wear less clothing than men in suits. The moral suasion on men to wear suits and ties results in …

• Riverrun: going eastward we find the Thames, Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine rivers ( 9 March, p 30 ). • The substance we should cautiously welcome as a treatment for depression is esketamine, one of the mirror-image molecules that make up ketamine ( 16 March, p 24 ).

Brian Pollard reminds us that atmospheric particulate pollution from cars comes from the tyres and brakes as well as exhausts (Letters, 2 March ). Particles are responsible for most of the loss of life expectancy associated with air pollution. What concerns me is that the word "particle" is being used to cover a multitude of …

You published a photo of a black leopard in Kenya, saying it may be the only image of a fully wild black leopard in Africa in a century ( 23 February, p 28 ). I was a national service conscript posted to Kenya between 1954 and 1956. We became very familiar with all the local …