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3 October 2018
From John Wykes, Derby, UK
Kenneth Payne offers an important and illuminating discussion of the problems that artificial intelligence presents in the military sphere ( 15 September, p 40 ). He opens by stating that "archaeological and ethnographic evidence suggests that warfare among our hunter-gatherer ancestors was chronic". This claim has been promulgated by some high-profile writers recently. But not …
3 October 2018
What about all the species that rely on mosquitoes as a food source? Marjorie Meldrum suggests there may be downsides to wiping out the insects using a "gene drive" method ( 29 September, p 10 ) .
3 October 2018
From Guy Cox, St Albans, New South Wales, Australia
Jeffrey Harte suggests that a stratum of "plastiglomerate" might geologically delineate the Anthropocene – or as I prefer to call it, the Plasticene – epoch (Letters, 8 September ). Plastic persists long enough to cause havoc in our oceans, but it will not withstand geological heat and pressure on geological timescales. Plastics are mostly carbon …
3 October 2018
From Paul Vann, Loddiswell, Devon, UK
Michael Le Page discusses the potential of very large-scale desert solar and wind farms to increase local rainfall and hence vegetation ( 15 September, p 16 ). And UN secretary-general AntÓnio Guterres declared on 10 September that we are at a defining moment for avoiding runaway climate change. It seems we have a critical need …
3 October 2018
From Joe Valks, Mainsforth, County Durham, UK
Yvaine Ye reports on using sound pressure to create a bubble from a levitating droplet ( 22 September, p 19 ). Five years ago Jacob Aron described similar levitation using sound, creating a standing sound wave in which gravitation and acoustic forces cancel ( 20 July 2013, p 10 ). Levitated objects could be moved …
3 October 2018
From David Waltner-Toews, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Lara Williams's comment on vaping on public transport reminded me of conversations back when smoking was allowed on buses, trains and aeroplanes ( 1 September, p 22 ). The person in the seat next to you might ask, "Do you mind if I smoke?" and perhaps add, "Just a bad habit. Can't shake it." The …
10 October 2018
From Roger Fletcher, Hyde, Greater Manchester, UK
Boyer allows no room for the sort of redistributive taxation policies that from 1945 to the early 1980s helped to narrow the gap between rich and poor in the UK. Since then, right-wing taxation policies have been reopening the gap, to the detriment of the country as a whole. Yes, that's a left-wing view, but …
10 October 2018
From Merlin Reader, London, UK
Adam Smith argued in his Wealth of Nations that for free markets to work, employers must not be allowed to confer. And "free" markets are in fact highly regulated, to prevent adulteration of food, for example. That does happen without regulation. And consumers cannot choose lower prices if no companies offer them.
10 October 2018
From Nathaniel Hellerstein, San Francisco, California, US
Boyer says that it is as if the human mind is designed to misunderstand mass-market economics. But retroactive maladaptation would be hard to explain. I offer a counter-proposal: it is as if mass-market economics is designed to be misunderstood by human minds. This is easy to explain. Those in charge of such economies have a …
10 October 2018
From Rosalinda Hardiman, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK
Clare Wilson reveals some of the earliest known human mark-making, possibly pushing back the beginning of the history of art ( 15 September, p 7 ). I am irritated, though, by the use of "etching" instead of "engraving" or "incising" to describe how the marks were made. The distinction is important to me as an …
