Hole in one
Your look at the black hole firewall paradox described Hawking radiation as the escape of one of a pair of virtual particles that pop into existence at the event horizon while the other falls into the black hole (6 April, p 38). So how does this Hawking radiation diminish the black hole if, for each particle radiated, one is captured?
鈥� The particle that is captured by the black hole has negative energy. Much as a black hole’s mass increases when anything with positive energy falls in, its mass decreases when a particle with negative energy falls in. The upshot is that the black hole slowly evaporates.
Cappadocia hope
Your article on my research into the environmental and genetic factors that cause high rates of mesothelioma in the Turkish region of Cappadocia was excellent (13 April, p 34).
But contrary to your headline, the Cappadocian villagers are not “the damned”. There are reasons for these proud, religious and dignified people to be optimistic.
I hope that in Cappadocia the incidence of mesothelioma caused by the local mineral erionite will decrease and possibly disappear thanks to a new erionite-free village built in response to our findings. We are also identifying new mesothelioma biomarkers and developing more sensitive tests for early diagnosis and better therapies; I anticipate profound positive impacts for those with the condition.
Size matters
You report Brian Mautz’s theory that the visual preferences of our female ancestors in a time before clothing led to men evolving larger penises to attract mates (13 April, p 15). Size did and maybe still does matter.
This is based on the preferences of 105 present-day North American women, who were shown computer-generated images of men with a range of penis sizes. However, the idea that the cultured and clothed modern woman’s state of mind equates to that of our early ancestors is unproven, as is the idea that the earlier females could choose their sexual partners.
鈥� Mautz’s point is that if there had been no past selection on penis size, then it shouldn’t affect women’s preference today. This suggests that women in ancient times must have had some control over mate choice.
Rare treat?
I was interested to read about the study suggesting a link between carnitine in red meat and atherosclerosis. Carnitine is converted to the metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) by the gut microbiota prevalent in meat-eaters, and causes subsequent changes in cholesterol metabolism (13 April, p 15).
However, blood cholesterol levels don’t explain all the variation in the occurrence of cardiovascular disease.
These diseases have many factors and this study provides another piece in the puzzle showing the links between atherosclerosis and diet and lifestyle. As current dietary advice is to limit the intake of red meat, this doesn’t need to change. But, as you say, people who take supplements of L-carnitine for non-medical reasons should perhaps have second thoughts.
It must surely be relevant that many marine animals, such as cod, shark, squid, octopus and crustaceans, contain much more TMAO than can be produced from all the carnitine in the same weight of mammalian red meat.
Whether this has dietary implications remains a matter of conjecture.
Flu watch
I read your story on the latest outbreak of bird flu in people in China with interest (13 April, p 10). The hope is that, as with H5N1, the H7N9 virus will not acquire the ability to pass from human to human that you speculate on. If it does, it is almost certain to cause the next major influenza pandemic, which doesn’t bear thinking about.
We need better surveillance. Every day of advance warning of a pandemic could mean hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives saved. The current situation is like waiting to warn of a tsunami weeks too late.
Similarly, vaccine development must start after the first few deaths. Maybe it would be better to invest in many labs around the globe that can make small batches of vaccine very quickly, so that animal and human testing can occur within weeks of a new virus appearing. Then, if the threat became real we would be in a far better position to know which vaccine to make, and have everything in place to make it quickly.
That's funny
Tom Chatfield’s article on the linguistic revolution fuelled by digital technology (6 April, p 30) explores the possible origins of the expression LOL, which is usually interpreted as meaning laughing out loud.
What about the possibility that it comes from the Dutch word lol, which translates as “fun”?
On the run
Your review of Adrian Raine’s book The Anatomy of Violence claimed that potential criminals can be detected at a young age by their low heartbeat, combined with a fearless, risk-taking personality (13 April, p 46). This sounds like a description of people who excel in sport.
However, rather than locking up all the top athletes, perhaps we can make a special effort to support them during, and especially after, they end their sporting careers, in order to protect them from turning to a life of crime!
Mass stupidity
Your editorial on new insights into stupidity (30 March, p 5) contained a stupid statement: the suggestion that the invasion of Iraq shows that “clever people can do monumentally stupid things”. You cannot discern the relative stupidity of an action unless you identify the stakeholders and identify their stake.
To the general population living in the nations supporting the invasion it was stupid, as they had to risk both their life and limb and their economic resources.
But it was stupid on their part not because they believed the flawed “intelligence” that led to the invasion, or that their leaders were misinformed, but because they erroneously assumed that their leaders were working for the interest of the people rather than their own, personal, interests.
DALY thought
It was good to see attention drawn to the need for more resources to reduce child mortality in low-income countries (6 April, p 28), but creating a system for trade in disability adjusted life years (DALYs) would be a perverse way of going about this.
If such utopian schemes are to be considered, why not just fund it via a globally enforced tax on the very rich?
Trading in DALYs wouldn’t be at all like carbon-trading. That’s because the data are very poor, and models for the effects of interventions on DALYs are a lot more uncertain and debatable than, for example, the known effects of burning coal on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. A further problem with the proposed system is that not all ways of reducing mortality are funded via health budgets.
Critically, a system providing incentives for reallocating health expenditure between countries that doesn’t address inequities that exist within countries would very likely take resources away from the poor in countries such as the US.
Thatcher legacy
I enjoyed your editorial on Margaret Thatcher’s unique position as a UK prime minister with a science degree and her effect on science in the country (13 April, p 3). I have just read that her admirers are looking for a central London building to turn into a memorial to the great lady.
Seeing that the Royal Institution is still facing an uncertain future despite a recent 拢4.4 million cash gift, is there a case for their money being used to preserve and invigorate this historic home of British science?
Or would politics prevent it from accepting funding from such a source?
We're not immune
Thomas Wilkins wrote in to suggest that antibiotics becoming ineffective would not be an apocalyptic threat, since we have innate immune systems (13 April, p 29). Immunity didn’t help the one in five who died from tuberculosis between 1500 and 1860, nor was it that successful at protecting roughly half the population of Europe from the Black Death, many of whom could have been saved by streptomycin.
Self belief
In his letter, Ed Subitzky wonders what is the difference between the self and the illusion of self (13 April, p 29). I can help.
Take Alice and Bob. Alice knows enough to live a healthy, happy life, and expects to die and be reduced to ash. She has no beliefs.
Bob, while having the same knowledge and expectations as Alice, does have beliefs. He believes that he has a spiritual copy of his brain’s contents 鈥� memory, character, skills and the like. He believes that only the spiritual copy is conscious and that this is his real “self”.
The old days
I fear that you really must rid yourself of those rose-tinted spectacles. Economic austerity doesn’t exist except perhaps in exploited communities in poorer countries (13 April, p 6).
The phenomena that you report are but reversions to a non-affluent pre-war lifestyle.