Letters archive

As attempts over the past 20 years have demonstrated, carbon capture and storage is fraught with difficulty and unlikely to make a significant contribution in the future. A worthwhile alternative strategy in which citizens and various levels of government worldwide can participate is carbon sequestration through tree propagation 20 April, p 8 . In cities, …

You report that "post-op infection is often due to skin-dwelling microbes". Surgeons try to prevent these infections by sterilising the skin before cutting into it, but nature abhors a vacuum and when most of the biome is killed you have no control over which organisms multiply to fill the (nearly) empty niche. Maybe it is …

Many years ago, in eastern Canada, I encountered numerous eastern garter snakes – the species in your report on a study that found they appear to recognise their own scent. Noam Miller, the researcher who found this ability, attributes it to the fact that garter snakes are social creatures, unlike ball pythons, which appear not …

The words "…my peers load their plates with only burgers, fries and pizza" define precisely what is at the heart of the obesity crisis. Pretty much no food is inherently bad. However, the sheer amount of it eaten is. In the UK, US and other places where food is relatively cheap, I have witnessed single …

The evidence that anxiety is rising in children is largely unequivocal. You describe several potential causal factors, including social media, interactions at school and socio-economic status 6 April, p 35 . Another possibility worth mentioning is the use in schools of low-intensity interventions to raise awareness of mental health. These are often given whether or …

My objections to the many worlds interpretation of quantum theory are that it is necessarily untestable and anyway explains nothing 23 March, p 32 . To be testable, we would have to be able to detect the influence of one of the other copies of our universe on us for at least some tiny period …

It is rather anthropocentric to say that to seek advanced alien life, we should search for clusters of planets that look remarkably similar, a sign of terraforming. Extraterrestrials that are sufficiently evolved to cross space and colonise other worlds might not need to terraform them. They are probably highly adaptable and can do the opposite: …

In her article on omega fatty acids, Jasmin Fox-Skelly states that the most important thing to do to get more omega-3 in your diet is to eat more oily fish. Vegetarians, vegans and people who don't want to eat fish should note that the fish don't make the DHA and EPA omega-3s they contain themselves: …

I take no issue with the thermal advantages of vines growing on buildings. These plants may cause few problems with certain modern brick or tight-dressed stone walls, but they can grow into, and feed off, the lime cement mortar of older buildings. Likewise, the roots rapidly get behind wooden clapboard walls. 30 March, p 44

Nigel Tuersley's comments on the risks of technological optimism are too true. As well as the throwaway attitude he mentions of thinking we will be able to leave Earth, the argument from some quarters that we will find an engineering fix to climate change is dangerous and used to delay urgently required action. Letters, 20 …