Bones to pick
I really must take issue with your editorial on the identification of the probable remains of Richard III (9 February, p 5). Yes, peer review has its place in science. But I fear you o’er leap yourself, as Shakespeare might have put it, in appearing to claim this historical discovery must be peer reviewed in the same way as a scientific one.
I am quite happy for the language of the court to prevail in this case, and for these bones to be announced as “beyond reasonable doubt” those of the last of the Plantagenet kings. If I were a juror in the case of the killing of Richard III, the evidence would convince me that this was his body.
Yes, subject the DNA investigation to peer review if you must 鈥� but don’t put the whole process to the same test.
Community spirit
The decision by Cumbria County Council to withdraw its candidacy to house a deep geological repository for UK nuclear waste is disappointing (9 February, p 7). But it is only a blip, and the search will go on for a community willing to host such a facility.
We can’t just leave the waste in temporary storage above ground; it has to go into a proper disposal facility underground. That needs a combination of local agreement and the right geology.
Even if the council had said yes, there would have been a long way to go before we could be sure that Cumbria’s geology was suitable. Cumbria has withdrawn much too soon. The technical arguments put forward against the proposed site were not convincing, and the process would have benefited from much more scientific analysis to make sure any decisions were based on facts. That cannot happen now.
The money on offer to the region which agrees to accept the waste has been called a bribe by some. But a community that puts itself forward will be providing a service to the country, and it is only right that they be rewarded.
Lost the will
What puzzles me about the ongoing interest in time travel is the elephant in the room: free will (2 February, p 8). I have no problem with relativistic time travel in which people in speeding spaceships age more slowly.
However, travelling to the past or future via wormholes implies a 4th dimension of time in which both the past and future are physical realities 鈥� the past is still there and the future has already happened. Whatever happened to free will?
Slim chance
As other creatures shrink to cope in a hotter world humans may face an additional squeeze on food resources, as you suggested (9 February, p 40). Perhaps those of us with a metabolism suited to eating and drinking less may have the advantage in a crowded, hungry, hotter world.
Let's talk
Instead of attacking progressives for views that most do not espouse (2 February, p 24), Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell should be calling for the kind of political discourse that they and most true conservatives favour: one in which policymaking is based on respect for science and scientific evidence.
Both progressive and conservative approaches have value in addressing the problems of society. We need to listen to each other instead of mounting false attacks on both sides of the political divide.
Berezow and Campbell make some good points, but I was bemused by anti-vaccine activists being described as socially authoritarian. They surely have more in common with Tea Party anti-authoritarianism. Perhaps this just proves there are more combinations of attitudes than can be easily labelled.
Birchgrove, New South Wales, Australia
Casualties of war
If your feature on US drone pilots is meant to invite us to sympathise with the stresses they experience, you have failed with this reader (26 January, p 46). Unlike the pilots, the victims of asymmetric warfare by the rich on the poor will not be around to help with their children’s schoolwork.
Weirded out
The letters from Ian Stewart and Malcolm Shute reinforce the idea that the “dual theory of light” says as much about the observer as it does about light (2 February, p 28).
An electron is an electron and light is light; the problems begin when we try to construct an analogy which can be comprehended without resort to equations. Such an analogy will, by definition, possess an element of weirdness.
Perhaps biologist J. B. S. Haldane was right and the universe really is “queerer than we can suppose”.
Gaming skills
In his letter, Alan Hayward suggested that promoting video game tournaments as a spectator sport amounts to attracting people to “couch-potato land”, describing those watching as “mindless” (2 February, p 29).
Professional video game players are as skilled as professional athletes. Why shouldn’t people enjoy watching them show off their skills?
The sky's the limit
I am assuming that most readers will appreciate Reg Platt’s arguments against the untruths perpetrated by campaigners against wind power (19 January, p 26), but I don’t think he will change the mind of a single doubter. People don’t like wind farms because they don’t like the look of them and they are noisy.
I can’t suggest anything to counter the noise, but I have an idea to improve their look: repaint the turbines. Invite artists to come up with designs. More importantly, engage the public by holding competitions along the same lines.
Water waste
Amidst drought conditions in parts of the US (19 January, p 10) I worry that intransigent rules are not helping conserve water supplies. In Florida where I live, community rules state that 60 per cent of our garden visible from the public road has to be grassed.
We have to use a certain type of grass 鈥� one that is not native to Florida 鈥� which we must keep in good condition all year. That means twice-weekly irrigation. We are not allowed artificial grass, nor drought-tolerant native grass.
One day it will be too late to wake up and smell the roses, as our irrigation water sources will have run dry.
Gun control
Letter writer Richard Taylor should not be so pessimistic about the effectiveness of gun control (9 February, p 32). Contrary to what he implies about a relentless increase in gun crime in the UK, Home Office statistics show it has fallen steadily in recent years, and recorded firearms offences in England and Wales halved during the past eight years.
Reproductive fitness
You report a study which showed that young men who watched more than 20 hours of television a week had a lower sperm count (9 February, p 7). We already knew that testicular heating through sedentary jobs or tight underwear can decrease sperm counts, and so the same effect might be seen in men who spend many hours sitting on the sofa watching TV. Similarly, there is evidence to suggest moderate exercise could change physiology sufficiently to improve testicular health.
However, it remains to be seen if coaxing a TV-watching couch potato into regular exercise could improve his sperm count. It may be that there is an unknown fundamental difference between men who like exercise and those who don’t which accounts for the findings. This should be easy enough to check.
Before all worried men hunt for their sports kit, it is important to note that other research suggests too much exercise can be harmful to sperm production, and this study did not examine the type and intensity of exercise undertaken. My advice would be everything in moderation.
Cat nap
In your sleep special you posed the question: why do we sleep? One theory is that it is simply to conserve energy and avoid danger at night, by snoozing in a place of relative safety (2 February, p 38).
Fossil records of hominids show that a common cause of death was predation by big cats, which we can assume hunted at night, so laying low would have brought obvious benefits. So the next time somebody bores you with this question at a party, you can confidently tell them: “I sleep to avoid being eaten by lions.”
Rainbow roads
Noreen Weighell thinks of numbers in colour thanks to kindergarten teaching methods (9 February, p 33). I experience a similar crossing of the senses derived from an early enthusiasm for electronics. I see numbers, particularly road numbers, in their resistance colour code values. So the A272, for example, appears to me as “red, purple, red” 鈥� the first three coloured stripes on a 272 ohm resistor.
Red alert
It’s a shame that the article with the picture of the red squirrel in a snowy forest (9 February, p 26) didn’t mention the continuing success of the conservation effort for these animals in Wales, especially in .
For the record
鈥� Our report on time-travel visualisation said cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev holds the record for space travel (2 February, p 8). In fact, fellow Russian Sergei Krikalyov is the record holder, with 803 days off-planet 鈥� compared to Avdeyev’s 747 days.