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6 June 2018
From Ann Wills, London, UK
Aisling Irwin reports on trying to solve the problem of plastic waste by getting it to dissolve ( 19 May, p 25 ). However, a plastic-eating enzyme could be disastrous if it cannot tell the difference between what is meant to be degraded and material that we need to be permanent. Plastic is used in …
6 June 2018
From David Copsey,Brighton, East Sussex, UK
I have come across a practical solution to plastic disposal that is obvious when you think about it. Across Colombia, the Conceptos Plásticos enterprise is transforming plastic and rubber waste into a construction material and using it to build houses for those who need them.
6 June 2018
Asteroids squished can form a planet. Pluto is comets squished and has a comet's eccentric orbit Brinda Thomas responds to people demanding that Pluto, found to be comets squished together, be called a planet ( 2 June, p 8 )
6 June 2018
From David Holdsworth, Settle, North Yorkshire, UK
Lara Williams comments that a male pill will be a breakthrough for science but not for women ( 12 May, p 22 ). She does not mention vasectomy. In my experience this allows a man to assume full responsibility for contraception without any need for interference with his body chemistry. Numerous jokes reveal, however, that …
6 June 2018
From Trevor Magnusson, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Like everyone else, I consider myself a better than average driver ( 12 May, p 42 ). More accurately: when I am alert and concentrating, my performance is better than the average of other drivers' total performance, including their performance in inattentive moments. And so is yours. Stated that way, we are not delusional at …
6 June 2018
From Garry Trethewey, Cherryville, South Australia
So "good mental health" dictates that we all overestimate our abilities . I wonder about the relationship between that and the effect reported by Justin Kruger and David Dunning in "Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments" ( doi.org/dks ). In other words, those that know …
6 June 2018
From Michel Daubizit, Sansac de Marmiesse, France
Olive Heffernan says coating farms with basalt could cool Earth by absorbing carbon dioxide ( 3 March, p 26 ). It could have another use: making hydrogen. Basalt contains a similar amount of iron to peridotite, an igneous rock common in Earth's mantle but rare in the upper crust. In peridotite, a reaction named serpentinisation …
6 June 2018
From Jackie Jones, Brighton, East Sussex, UK
In your article about the effects of not drinking alcohol for a month ( 19 May, p 7 ), you noted a drop in blood pressure and a 1.5 per cent decline in weight. I am not sure that all the benefits were the result of abstaining. Participants had previously been drinking three bottles of …
6 June 2018
From John Phillips, Hughenden Valley, Buckinghamshire, UK
Chris Baraniuk reports virtual training environments for troops ( 28 April, p 8 ). The obvious next step is to fight the war itself entirely within the virtual world.
6 June 2018
From Brian King, Barton On Sea, Hampshire, UK
Danny Chambers quotes William Hutchinson, an advocate of positive training for dogs: "Be to his virtues ever kind. Be to his faults a little blind" ( 10 March, p 24 ). Is this epigram the ultimate in doggerel?
