Letters archive

Bravo for Grace Wade's analysis on "ultra-processed" foods, which questions the presumption that they are always harmful. I am glad to see New Scientist finally addressing the question of whether we can simply blame these foods for health problems, as though the ultra-processed term is well-defined and they are all bad ( 19 August, p …

Graham Lawton's article on "ageotypes" was very interesting ( 12 August, p 32 ). The rates at which our organs age could be related to different cellular senescence processes, and perhaps identifying an ageotype could facilitate intervention in the form of drugs such as telomerase inhibitors or senomodulators targeted at those particular bodily systems that …

Your report on the net energy gain from a fusion reaction in the US repeats the fallacy that a nuclear fusion power plant would produce no radioactive waste ( 12 August, p 13 ). The deuterium-tritium fusion reaction, currently the focus of fusion energy experiments, produces high-energy neutrons. These hit the containment vessel, blanket and …

Jason Arunn Murugesu rightly laments that we use too much water. However, there is an elephant in the room to address. Household water consumption is entirely drinking water. Why do we use drinking water for toilets? Used water, for example from showering, would still be perfect for re-using in the toilet ( 29 July, p …

Pete Drake is right to say that we could calculate personal carbon footprints by trawling everyone's financial transactions, though it is harder than he thinks ( Letters, 12 August ). But we could get the same effect by adopting the plan of the Green Party of England and Wales. Its proposed carbon tax would apply …

The age of the Perucetus colossus whale fossil was estimated using argon-argon dating (12 August, p 14) .

I agree that we need to be cautious about how we use the internet and phones because of firms trying to get our data. But I don't agree that this is "a game you can only lose", as one contributor put it. If you exercise, then your data should help you with your health insurance …

The fundamental problem with obesity isn't that the real cause of it has yet to be confronted, but that the real cause isn't known. If it is only that ultra-processed foods support over-consumption, as Pauline Keyne suggests, why is it that food intake in the US was stable at roughly 2200 kilocalories per day from …

I read your piece on the power of gestures accompanying speech with interest. However, the conclusion, and especially the assertion that other people's gestures "offer a window into the thoughts that speakers have but don't express in their words", seems at odds with previous research demonstrating that people are better at detecting if others are …

The flame you used to illustrate geologic hydrogen is incandescent. It looks more like methane to me ( 5 August, p 12 ).