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25 April 2018
From Andrew Sanderson, Spennymoor, County Durham, UK
Your leader on screening is clear and accurate ( 7 April, p 5 ). When I was a general medical practitioner, I was often unsure what to do with a marginally raised level of prostate specific antigen (PSA), which may indicate prostate cancer. The problem is that the gland's enlargement in benign prostatic hypertrophy also …
25 April 2018
What is suggested for us emergency services people who have to work all hours? Gail F responds to helpful suggestions on what to do about late nights being correlated with an early death ( 21 April, p 18 )
25 April 2018
From Phil French, Reading, Berkshire, UK
You report Anna Machin's research on fatherhood's effect on men ( 24 March, p 37 ). The birth of our first baby was medically "normal", but slightly odd circumstances meant I was handed the hastily wrapped baby to hold (and put my face near) very soon after birth. This seemed to have a long-term emotional …
25 April 2018
From Martin Pitt, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Michael Marshall suggests we can capture carbon dioxide from the air to make building materials by reacting it with calcium oxide to form calcium carbonate ( 17 March, p 34 ). Surely it would be better to capture the CO 2 in a more concentrated form from the chimneys of lime kilns, where calcium oxide …
25 April 2018
From Patrick Walker, Edinburgh, UK
In discussing ways to turn carbon dioxide into useful products , Marshall highlights that the energy costs of splitting hydrogen from water and carbon from CO 2 may make "carbon emission free" petrol too expensive. Is this a post-oil opportunity for countries like Saudi Arabia? They have plenty of sun to generate solar energy. Desalinated …
2 May 2018
From Ben Dallimore, Isle of Luing, Argyll, UK
Sally Adee reports that robots aren't coming for our jobs and indeed they may be creating more work ( 14 April, p 9 ). So what is the point in having them? Ask anyone who did housework in the 1950s about vacuum cleaners and washing machines. They gave people leisure time. They removed drudgery. They …
2 May 2018
From Carl Benedikt Frey, University of Oxford, UK
Adee argues that automation anxiety is overblown , but conflates current automation with the future potential for automation. She cites my research with Michael Osborne, which estimates that roughly 47 per cent of US jobs are exposed to automation technologies – but argues that this is overstated because recent surveys of the workplace in Germany …
2 May 2018
From Nick Hardwick, Stafford, UK
H. Gilbert Welch makes a very good point about the danger that screening will find cancers that aren't going to do us any harm ( 7 April, p 44 ). However, as a doctor who has investigated many people for cancer, and who has been investigated for cancer myself, I think the real challenge for …
2 May 2018
From Bob Falconer, Winchester, Hampshire, UK
I accept that screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) doesn't appear to improve prostate cancer survival rates . But I see a paradox. PSA screening followed by checks for symptoms can lead to unnecessary invasive procedures. But when symptoms appear they are generally followed by PSA testing – and the same invasive procedures. Why does it …
2 May 2018
From Geoff Browne, Sydney, Australia
You report Aaron Clauset classifying the size of a war by the number of soldiers killed ( 3 March, p 15 ). Civilians aren't included. This criterion leads to the bizarre consequence that a war (nuclear or otherwise), fought by artificial intelligence and killing few soldiers but millions of civilians, would be unworthy of recognition …
