State threat
Jared Diamond thinks that “traditional” societies sometimes do nasty things, and that state governments are a requisite for peace (12 January, p 26). His key point is that such societies kill many, be it in “war”, infanticide, or the abandonment or murder of the very old.
It is of course true that many of the tribes he writes about are violent in various ways, but nobody would deny that people kill other people everywhere. Diamond claims that tribes are considerably more prone to killing than are societies ruled by state governments. But contrasting tribal societies with industrialised ones has always been more about politics than science, and we should be extremely wary of doing this.
By saying a central government is the best answer, he is in effect attacking decades of work by tribal peoples and their supporters, who have opposed the theft of their land and resources, and asserted their right to live as they choose 鈥� often successfully.
The principal cause of the destruction of tribal peoples is the imposition of nation states. This does not save them; it kills them.
Looks familiar
Joe Kloc misses a possible explanation for the uncanny valley 鈥� the feeling of unease when seeing a robot with a strong human likeness (12 January, p 35). Perhaps because early humans could not easily breed with other hominins, this would have caused an evolutionary pressure to shun those we saw as almost human. Human-like robots may simply fall foul of this instinct.
Guns galore
It will be interesting to see what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can come up with in its research into gun violence in the US (26 January, p 6), but I doubt it will provide any solace to those who think that gun control laws hold the answer to reducing the violence.
Apart from the deep resolve of America’s gun owners, sheer numbers are a problem 鈥� hundreds of companies have produced tens of thousands of guns every year for decades, and no one knows where most of them are. Even in the UK, over 90 years of rigorously enforced and very strict gun laws have failed to stop mass killings and a relentless increase in gun crime. That said, a clear-sighted look at the matter can only be a good thing.
Scientific SOS
I would like to add my voice to Nobel laureate Harry Kroto’s rallying call to ensure the survival of the UK’s Royal Institution (26 January, p 27). Many of us in the science community are well aware of the financial pressures it has been under, which are more than simply a reflection of the current economic climate. But no one anticipated that its base, the wonderful building on Albemarle Street, London, might need to be sold off.
I have been privileged to give many lectures in its famous theatre. It is truly one of the most inspirational places in the world to speak in. It seems crazy that at a time when science and science communication is riding a wave of popularity not seen for generations, we hear that the very epitome of the British scientific institution is under threat.
We cannot sit back and wait for a rich benefactor to come along and save the day 鈥� we need to mobilise a national campaign to raise the necessary funds now.
Cooler climate
Several fair points are made in your assessment of the leaked draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (22/29 December 2012, p 8). However, saying that we now have a gloomier picture of the extent to which human-made aerosols reduce global warming is wrong.
The draft says the cooling effect of aerosols is 40 per cent less than thought in 2007. This implies that the climate is less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought, and will warm less than feared as the amount of this gas in the atmosphere rises.
On this basis, I calculate a doubling of CO2 compared to pre-industrial levels can be expected to cause the mean global surface temperature ultimately to rise by 1.5 to 2掳C (see details at ) rather than the 3掳C thought most likely by the IPCC in 2007. While this does not mean a continuing unchecked rise in CO2 is safe, the news is good, rather than gloomy.
Feel the buzz?
A buzzing steering wheel to guide dazzled drivers is unlikely to work (19 January, p 20). Several years ago, the US military tried a similar device in a pilot’s helmet to alert them to danger, but with no success.
When a person is stressed, as a dazzled driver is, they will concentrate on their main sensory input, in this case vision, and ignore other senses.
This was brought home to me when simulating Concorde take-offs on rough runways. We exposed the potential pilots to severe motion. At one point we had a non-pilot at the controls and he had to concentrate hard on the task. The first few runs were without motion. Then we introduced the movement, which would have been enough to unseat him if not strapped in. At the end we asked him what he thought of the motion 鈥� he hadn’t even noticed it.
As a cyclist, I am terrified by the idea of a buzzing steering wheel to help dazzled drivers stay in their lane. Motorists already tend to go too fast when dazzled, and technology that encourages them to feel secure while doing so does not inspire confidence in their ability to overtake me safely.
Hold the milk
In response to Donald A. Sands’s letter (19 January, p 31), while transport of goods is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, it is only a small part of the carbon footprint of an average cup of coffee.
According to Mike Berners-Lee’s book How Bad are Bananas?, a cup of black coffee has a carbon footprint of 21 grams of CO2, including boiling just the right amount of water, and transporting and processing the coffee. However, when a decent drop of milk is added, its footprint more than doubles to 53 g. For a large coffee shop latte, the total may be as high as 340 g.
Bugs 'n' birth
Carrie Arnold’s article on how microbes inside us help shape our evolution emphasised the link between our microbiome and health (12 January, p 30). However, there is a growing trend in developed countries away from natural childbirth and towards caesarean birth. A baby travelling down the birth canal is exposed to the mother’s biota in a way those delivered by caesarean are not.
Is there any correlation between caesarean birth and some of the growing issues of modern society, such as allergies and behavioural problems?
Count in colour
I was intrigued that letter writer Amy S. Bouska associates 9 with the colour yellow (19 January, p 30). For me, 9 is always a cool blue; 5 is yellow; 7 a sinister black; and 4 my favourite pink. I am not a synaesthete, but in kindergarten I learned to associate 1 to 10 and their squares with specific colours, so 16 is also pink. We used Cuisenaire rods 鈥� bars of coloured material cut to appropriate lengths to represent single digits.
Clear now
In your article on “ghostly galaxies”, you state that “about 300,000 years after the big bang, the charged hydrogen that filled the universe became neutral and opaque, creating a cosmic fog that blotted out visible light for a billion years” (19 January, p 16).
This is incorrect. When the hydrogen became neutral, it ceased to be opaque. Cold hydrogen only absorbs light at specific wavelengths and is largely transparent. The reason the period 300,000 years after the big bang is called the “dark ages” is simply because there were no stars to make light.
Font-ology
While I would not wish to be typecast, I found myself agreeing with Sally Adee that there is a lot more to typography than meets the eye (22/29 December 2012, p 68). My professional persona manifests itself in Times New Roman (except in emails) whereas jottings for friends and the odd poetic outburst find expression in Comic Sans.
An average driver?
I see that the question has arisen over whether driverless vehicles must perform “merely as well as an average human” (22/29 December 2012, p 34). Given that, as I am led to understand, most men in the UK think of themselves as far better than average behind the wheel, this might prove a tricky target to set.
ET gone phishing
Letter writer Martin Ellis seems concerned that a single evil civilisation will take over the universe (12 January, p 28). But such a civilisation would probably spam the intergalactic internet. So as long as we don’t respond to messages saying: “You have inherited a galaxy in the Crap Nebula”, we should be safe.
All you can pump
One can only imagine the horror of any all-you-can-eat-restaurant owner when the first customer arrives sporting the new weight-loss device consisting of a through-the-abdomen, surgically fitted stomach pump, recently patented by Aspire Bariatrics (12 January, p 19).
Truth will out
In your look at digital mapping (19 January, p 44), Pat Seed, a mapping historian, is quoted as saying: “There aren’t universal truths.” That sounds like one.