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
11 July 2018
From P.K.M. Tharakan, Brussels, Belgium
Debora MacKenzie's report on the recent outbreak of Nipah virus in the Indian state of Kerala and the search for vaccines and treatments is timely and informative ( 16 June, p 25 ). What is also important to highlight is the effective way Kerala seems to have contained this deadly outbreak. The virus causing the …
11 July 2018
From Nigel Harvey, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
In searching for "neural correlates of consciousness", Christof Koch and others look for brain activity that distinguishes conscious from unconscious processing of a stimulus ( 23 June, p 28 ). This is to treat a relatively easy problem as equivalent to the hard one of understanding how physical processes in the brain give rise to …
11 July 2018
From Paul G. Ellis, Chichester, West Sussex, UK
I think it reasonable to assume that consciousness evolved to make optimal use of neural data acquired both from the external environment through the senses and from internal signals. That suggests to me that the nervous system produces a model or representation of these data that enables them to be linked. I experience my self-awareness …
11 July 2018
From Len Mann, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, UK
Consciousness is a feeling I have; I am alive, I am conscious. I have a strong sense of self that seems to go beyond my physical being and beyond time. This can only be an illusion, bestowed by evolution, to give me, and all humans, a survival advantage. It may be impossible to find out …
11 July 2018
Now to more important things: which rapper will be the first to put it on their teeth? DragonQueen wants the next episode in the story of a new form of gold that's much golder than normal gold ( 7 July, p 16 )
11 July 2018
From Hans Pfalzgraf, Norwich, UK
Fred Pearce quotes Mark Lynas saying that nuclear energy not being covered by the Climate Bond Initiative smacks of green political correctness ( 23 June, p 36 ). Lynas responds to the reason given for this – that nuclear power is too expensive and not commercially viable – thus: "solar and wind were once hugely …
11 July 2018
From Richard Jackson, Arroyo Grande, California, US
You say "without both the dreamers and the doers, we will never get anywhere" in space (Leader, 23 June ). All space activity so far has been mission-oriented, so every new venture has to start from scratch. We should instead concentrate on infrastructure: a real space station, with facilities for building large spacecraft and for …
11 July 2018
• Einstein's general relativity says that gravitational waves should not corkscrew. A possible theory including an extra field says that they should ( 23 June, p 32 ).
18 July 2018
From Colin Pritchard, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK
Hans van Haren says that tidal energy can supply only relatively small amounts of power ( 23 June, p 24 ). He virtually rules out future use of general tidal power. I find this depressing and self-defeating. When I have an academic problem to solve, I leave my office and go to the coast a …
18 July 2018
From Simon L. Goodman, Griesheim, Germany
You report that magnets can make wine taste better by sucking out bad flavours ( 23 June, p 14 ). But I find the clever chemistry far more interesting. The researchers formed plastic in the presence of the target substance to leave it covered with holes that are "imprinted" with the shape of the molecules, …
