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
16 May 2018
From John Welch, Sevenoaks, Kent, UK
I have been a forensic scientist for many years and the report by Linda Geddes on forensic sciences in England and Wales was of great interest ( 28 April, p 22 ). However, the mild tone of the article understates how very bad the situation is. The reasons are many, but funding is at the …
16 May 2018
Purify seawater until you cannot tell it from fresh water: a #TuringTest for water Kate Adamala responds to a desalination method inspired by mathematician Alan Turing's only paper on chemistry ( 12 May, p 6 )
16 May 2018
From Shelley Charik, London, UK
You report research on whether late meetings are less useful ( 21 April, p 19 ). The direction of causality could just as easily be reversed. A large proportion of meetings are bad: unnecessary, badly run or both. People are happy to attend good meetings and reluctant to attend bad ones. They are more likely …
16 May 2018
From Ann Wills, London, UK
I share Jim Alexander's concern about recent proclamations that antidepressants really do work and should be used more often (Letters, 7 April ). Guidelines from NICE, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, suggest the use of antidepressants should be a last resort for those aged under 18. Yet the number of children …
16 May 2018
From Robert Craig, Washingborough, Lincolnshire, UK
As a science teacher, I must agree with Roger Redman's concerns over the way we try to encourage engineering in schools (Letters, 28 April ). The new courses certainly offer little time to do experimentation or project work. Most skills requirements relate to writing about activities rather than performing them. And when teachers order equipment …
16 May 2018
From Cedric Lynch, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, UK
Not only is education lacking in practical material, as Redman notes , but in the European Union and North America there are ever-increasing restrictions on hobbies. These are based on fears stemming from rare, but heavily reported, incidents of children misusing tools or materials. In the 60s and early 70s, when I was young, I …
23 May 2018
Slapping currency value on nonmarket goods is fraught with problems and assumptions AjP is sceptical about calculating an exact accounting value for a tree, from its shade to its beauty ( 12 May, p 32 )
23 May 2018
From N. C. Friswell, Horsham, West Sussex, UK
Sam Edge describes drawbacks of smart meters (Letters, 28 April ). It is now more than 20 years since I was at meetings with the UK government's then Department of Trade & Industry, where the smart meter idea was being proposed. At that time it was not seen as a scheme for remote meter reading, …
23 May 2018
From Brian Horton, West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Everyone thinks they are a better-than-average driver, even if they have just caused a serious accident ( 12 May, p 42 ). But this delusional belief is apparently a sign of good mental health and makes us happy and contented. Will the same apply to a self-driving car? Will I be safer if my car …
23 May 2018
• The study on koalas given antibiotics found that they had little effect on overall diversity of gut bacteria and did not definitively show that particular bacteria are essential ( 31 March, p 12 ). • Bling spring: diamond needles were bent by a nanoindenter inside a scanning electron microscope ( 28 April, p 9 …
