Join the conversation in New Scientist's Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
30 January 2019
From Peter Inkpen, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK
Michael Marshall's fascinating article on the first 3.5 billion years of life on Earth reinforces how fleeting human history is when placed in the context of such a vast period ( 12 January, p 28 ). A fantastic way to convey this point would be to represent the history of life along a walk in …
30 January 2019
It should show the pain it feels and bite the person who kicked it Evelyn delves into ethics on reading of a dog-like robot that learned to get up when kicked over ( 26 January, p 12 )
30 January 2019
From Gabriel Carlyle, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, UK
Some health campaigners may have welcomed the launch of the UK government's 10-year plan for the National Health Service (NHS) in England ( 12 January, p 6 ). But, for example, Youssef El-Gingihy, a doctor in east London and author of How to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps , notes that the form …
30 January 2019
From Ron Dippold, San Diego, California, US
Your workplace survival guide was far too easy on open plan offices ( 12 January, p 33 ). Employees hate them. Even "good" examples are anathema to people who have to do work that requires sustained thinking without interruption. Their use may be legitimate in start-ups with few staff creating something new on the fly. …
30 January 2019
From Carl Zetie, Raleigh, North Carolina, US
A common thread runs through several of your recommendations on surviving the modern workplace . The one factor that correlates most consistently with happy and productive workers is giving them choice. One of the most effective changes that an employer can make is to give employees more control over their environment and workspace, and discretion …
30 January 2019
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
I agree completely with Mini Grey's call for a carbon tax and dividend (Letters, 5 January ). I also share the pessimism of the letter from Blaise Bullimore that precedes it. Consider the consequences of French president Emmanuel Macron's attempt to raise extra funds for alternative energy sources by placing a small extra levy on …
30 January 2019
From Shane Dwyer, Melbourne, Australia
Feedback refers to penguins being priced, for some obscure reason connected with valuing wasted water, at 8.8p ( 22/29 December 2018 ). This seems rather cheap. I helped manage the Phillip Island tourist destination in Australia. The tourism value of the crowd-pleasing parade of penguins that emerges from the sea each night, was about A$10,000 …
30 January 2019
From Dudley Miles, London, UK
Chris Baraniuk attributes the extinction of cave bears to an inability to cope with the last glaciation ( 22/29 December 2018, p 60 ). But the species made it through the more severe Anglian glaciation around 450,000 years ago. Many climatic explanations of extinctions look at the period of demise in isolation without explaining why …
6 February 2019
From Danny Colyer, Bristol, UK
Leah Crane tells us that batteries on the New Horizons spacecraft can power the equivalent of three standard light bulbs ( 5 January, p 7 ). What is a "standard light bulb"? Once upon a time, I might have imagined a 60-watt filament bulb, but they are obsolete. It would make more sense to say …
6 February 2019
From Richard Price, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, UK
You report that there may be an intermediate-mass black hole the size of Jupiter in our galaxy ( 19 January, p 14 ). Wouldn't one of these have significantly greater mass than the planet? The editor writes: • The diameter of the event horizon of the suggested black hole would be roughly Jupiter's diameter. The …
