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2 January 2019
From Stuart Leslie, Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia
In the article on the cave painting found in Borneo ( 17 November 2018, p 18 ), it is claimed it may be the oldest figurative art in the world at 40,000 years old. In Australia, there are two detailed rock paintings depicting the marsupial carnivore Thylacoleo carnifex and two of the giant flightless bird …
9 January 2019
From Fred White, Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, UK
Michael Le Page deals with the confusion over climate change figures ( 15 December 2018, p 34 ). This seems self-imposed. The one thing that seems certain is that more carbon dioxide means more warming. I have looked on in disbelief for 40 years as arguments have raged over the precise degree of temperature rise, …
9 January 2019
From Barry Cash, Bristol, UK
Olive Heffernan says that leaders such as President Macron of France need to find some backbone, confronted with climate change and the ' gilets jaunes ' opposition to his tax rises ( 15 December 2018, p 26 ). But why did Macron start by taxing the transport that the least well-off depend on? Surely it …
9 January 2019
From Mary Voice, Ivanhoe, Victoria, Australia
Emma Young discusses styles of navigation ( 15 December 2018, p 38 ). As a teenager in the southern hemisphere, I learned to find north using a watch and the sun. I trained as a meteorologist in the days when students went outside to do field experiments. When I first visited the northern hemisphere, it …
9 January 2019
From Ian Simmons, Thorpe Bay, Essex, UK
Young reports Kate Jeffery using the direction of shadows as an aid to orienting herself when navigating. Satellite dishes on houses are also useful. In the northern hemisphere, they point south at satellites in geostationary orbit over the equator.
9 January 2019
From Andy Taylor, Edinburgh, UK
Chelsea Whyte weighs up the pros and cons of meal kits ( 8 December 2018, p 22 ). She does not mention one quite significant drawback: the transport costs of getting these kits to people's houses. Presumably most are delivered in small or medium, diesel-fuelled vans. Many of these will be nearly empty, especially when …
9 January 2019
From Sanya Sanderson, Wirral, UK
Alice Klein highlights a study suggesting little difference between the environmental footprints of washable and disposable nappies ( 24 November 2018, p 22 ). I suspect this underestimated the average journey of a washable nappy and the commitment of those who use them. In the 1960s, my mother used terry nappies with my brother and …
9 January 2019
From Brian Collins, Wellington, New Zealand
Douglas Heaven reports that a prototype aeroplane using electroaerodynamic propulsion flew for 12 seconds, the same as the Wright brothers achieved with their maiden flight ( 24 November 2018, p 7 ). It is a historical fact that the Wright brothers flew their bird-like monoplane on 17 December 1903. But many believe that New Zealander …
9 January 2019
From Robert Masta, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US
Alice Klein and Chelsea Whyte say that switching Christmas lights to static rather than flashing mode uses less power ( 1 December 2018, p 22 ). This is true of incandescent lights, which draw high "inrush" current when the filaments are cold and have low resistance. But LED lights have no comparable phenomenon. Their energy …
9 January 2019
• When inhibitory cells were implanted into epileptic rats and then turned off, these rats had nearly as many seizures as those with no implants ( 22/29 December 2018, p 8 ). • It is rolling resistance in tyres that accounts for between 5 and 30 per cent of vehicles' fuel consumption ( 8 December …
