Letters archive

I was intrigued by Gregory Paul's discussion of the relationship between religion and economic development ( 28 July, p 24 ). But economics can be used to measure well-being up to a relatively low level of income ( 28 July 2012, p 40 ) As countries or communities become more unequal in wealth distribution, measures …

Paul asks why non-theistic countries are more successful. But how should we measure "success"? Finland, for example, is ranked top in the 2018 World Happiness report but 42nd by gross domestic product. The US is ranked top by GDP but only 18th for happiness. Religions value compassion, which promotes happiness. In contrast, economic success comes …

Catherine de Lange reports a virtual reality headset improving users' vision "to 20/30, which is pretty close to 20/20 vision" ( 4 August, p 4 ). In the UK, doctors and opticians now use a metric measure of visual acuity: "6/9 vision" means being able to read at 6 metres what one should, nominally, be …

Poppy-Jayne Morgan reports on glasses that project emojis to help children with autism read faces ( 11 August, p 10 ). She says of one that "Alex's gaze avoidance remained a significant issue for him". Is this not projecting onto an autistic boy the emotional state of his mother? I have seen others suggest that, …

I'm still not going to take it. Apparently you are as sick as a dog afterwards. Claire Farrow is not motivated by a report that taking ayahuasca is like having a near-death experience ( 25 August, p 14 )

Sam Edge says current smart meters are a flawed way for electricity generators to try to reduce peak demand (Letters, 11 August ). They do need to do this, but the plan to use smart meters to adjust electricity prices to encourage people to use more off-peak power, and thereby less peak power, has me …

You report behavioural ecologist Betty McGuire finding that small dogs tend to aim high when urinating and suggest that this may be the canine equivalent of macho posturing ( 11 August, p 13 ). I'm not sure. Anyone who walks dogs will attest that they continually sample scents, and often investigate a site closely before …

I read that the melting Totten glacier could on its own raise sea levels by 3 metres ( 11 August, p 4 ). Really? It must be very big. The editor writes : • It is: its catchment area is more than 500,000 square kilometres and researchers in fact say that its total loss could …

You write: "You may think you already know everything there is to know..." (Leader, 28 July ). Surely, the fact that we are reading New Scientist means we don't?

• The shield of the Parker Solar Probe is necessary to protect against radiation from the sun's surface ( 18 August, p 5 ).