Gas windfall?
So, the thinning East Siberian Arctic ice shelf is sitting on top of billions of tonnes of trapped methane, which it may release at any time with catastrophic results (27 July, p 16). At the same time, campaigners want to prevent fracking for shale gas in the UK. I have an idea that would kill two birds with one stone…
Cambridge, UK
Smarter route
Smart cars that need no driver could be the solution to human fallibilities behind the wheel (20 July, p 3). But a robot car with four or five seats, only one of which is occupied most of the time, is still a waste of space and fuel. Would it not be better to create smart public transport instead?
Culemborg, The Netherlands
Smarter route
Jeff Hecht’s warnings about increased automation and the proliferation of gadgets in cars are apt and timely (20 July, p 24). Cars hurl stupendous amounts of kinetic energy up and down our roads, and are managed by people of average abilities. It is no surprise that carnage occasionally results. Contrast this with the safety conscious air industry, and its highly trained pilots.
Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, UK
Operation Mar
In his look at hopes for a human colony on Mars, Nigel Henbest writes that “mission planners have even considered removing potentially troublesome organs” from crew members (13 July, p 42). The idea may sound radical, but there are precedents. My wife and her first husband, a medical doctor, went to New Guinea in 1957 on Australian government service. A condition was that they both had to have their appendix removed before they were sent.
Buderim, Queensland, Australia
Operation Mar
I was struck by a curious coincidence. In a recent editorial, you say that “globalisation, deregulation and unfettered movement of capital have made a lot of people rich, but have come at a terrible cost: environmental destruction and widening inequality” (13 July, p 5).
In the very same issue, the options for sending humans to Mars are considered, with both oblique and direct references to the massive private wealth that will probably be the source of funding for such a journey.
Are we to applaud the “globalisation and deregulation” which will, in effect, make it possible for us to explore our near neighbour, or should we utterly deplore what are essentially rich men’s whims, leading to a massive squandering of our limited resources even as so many pressing issues remain to be dealt with here on Earth?
Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK
Evolution of war
Douglas Fry and Patrik Soderberg claim that in hunter-gatherer societies, the great majority of deaths due to violence happened as a result of events within a group rather than “wars” between groups (27 July, p 18). The researchers suggest that cooperation for intergroup fighting therefore played only a minor role in human evolution.
However, rivalry between groups does not necessarily result in violent deaths, and so could have been more widespread than Fry and Soderberg believe.
Once a group developed the ability to cooperate, it could have taken over the best areas, with starvation and disease 鈥� rather than war 鈥� seeing off its rivals. In this way, evolution could still have favoured those with a warlike group mentality.
West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Brown is green
Brownfield sites 鈥� disused industrial land 鈥� are all too often viewed as ecological deserts. Fred Pearce brings home the truth that they can be amazingly biodiverse (13 July, p 16).
Such areas are similar to “naturally” barren sites, such as rock falls and volcanic debris fields, in that they represent a clean slate for colonisation by wildlife. Yet some people regard brownfield sites as inferior, simply because they are the product of human activity. As a result, politicians, planners and developers may not fully assess their biological value.
By contrast, if an area of chalk grassland were slated for development, thorough wildlife surveys would be carried out and opponents would mount a strong case against the proposal.
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK
Seeking to recruit…
You report that employers are now actively recruiting people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (1 June, p 8). The thinking is that they may make more rational decisions 鈥� possibly because they are less likely to fall prey to heuristics and bias 鈥� and may also excel in areas such as recall, spatial awareness and manipulating large amounts of information. These skills might suit air traffic control, for which spatial awareness and the ability to quickly manipulate detailed information are highly desirable.
Equally, the quiet conditions of a control tower may suit those with ASD.
Palmerston North, New Zealand
For your ears only
You report that, for security reasons, the Kremlin is thinking of using typewriters instead of computers (20 July, p 19). Ironically, in the 1970s, the Soviets developed a highly sensitive optical instrument that they used to monitor the vibrations of certain windows in Washington DC. As secretaries typed government memos, each key struck caused a slightly different vibration, allowing the Soviets to eavesdrop on the content of those memos.
After the US discovered this was going on, someone invented silent typewriters. Perhaps the Kremlin ought to review some of the old files on this technology.
Poquoson, Virginia, US
Population brake
Tony RichardsonAndy Robinson’s letter suggesting that population growth will inevitably continue presents only one aspect of what is a very complex issue, involving much more than a genetic imperative to breed (20 July, p 28). One thing that makes us human is the potential to use our intelligence to find ways to transcend instinct when necessary.
We know that education, particularly of women, and greater economic security and well-being can result in lower birth rates. There are well-established ways to encourage and empower people to have fewer children.
Telford, Shropshire, UK
Efficient or what?
I would like to assure Steve Elliott that heat pumps can “operate at 300 to 400 per cent efficiency” (Feedback, 20 July).
A heat pump uses an electric motor to drive refrigerant around a sealed circuit. When this liquid becomes a gas, it absorbs heat from the environment. The gas is then compressed into a liquid, causing it to release heat 鈥� into the home, for example.
If we regard efficiency as the heat energy transferred divided by the energy used by the pump, then a heat pump can have an efficiency of 300 to 400 per cent, transferring 3 or 4 kilowatts of heat into your home for each kilowatt of electricity used.
Webbs Creek, New South Wales, Australia
Blown away
I was dismayed by the report on the wind turbine explosion in Scotland that happened because high winds forced it to turn against the brakes (13 July, p 7). What dismayed me was not the incident itself or the ammunition it provided to the anti-wind lobby, but the engineering solutions recommended to prevent it happening again.
The turbine operator says that fireproof materials, sensors and built-in extinguishers should work. But why not just use locking pins? This simple mechanism prevents any possibility of rotation. Sometimes high-tech solutions are not the best.
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Thought power
Your article on how thinking good thoughts can strengthen the activity of the vagus nerve, with many health benefits, definitely worked for me (13 July, p 46).
The good thoughts had a measured reduction in my resting pulse rate and blood pressure. My previous attempts to meditate have been unsuccessful, so thank god for science.
Milton Keynes, UK
Dizzied and confused
Like Alfred Hitchcock, you seem to believe that “vertigo” means a fear of heights (20 July, p 8). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it actually means “a condition with a sensation of whirling and a tendency to lose balance, dizziness, giddiness” and it comes from the Latin vertere, meaning “to turn”.
Although it is often a by-product of the fear of heights, it can equally be experienced at ground level. The correct term for a fear of heights is “acrophobia”.
Havant, Hampshire, UK
It's good to talk
There is almost certainly a role for well-targeted drugs to offer symptomatic relief from depression (27 July, p 34), but drugs are not right for everybody.
We know that those who suffer trauma, for example, are at risk of depression. Your report quotes a 2007 study that showed people with depression often have elevated levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is no great leap to suggest that this occurs to help to suppress traumatic experience.
This is why talking therapies are effective for many people, albeit not all. By identifying underlying trauma you deal with the cause, not just the symptoms.
Manchester, UK
Too big for our boots
We are inundated with news and commentaries on the causes and effects of global warming (newscientist.com/article/dn23950) and on the inexorable increase in obesity (newscientist.com/article/dn23869). Surely there is a connection.
Humans of large proportions consume more food, wear larger clothes and shoes, buy larger vehicles and furniture, use more fuel to transport themselves, and as a consequence contribute more significantly to anthropogenic global warming than those of an average weight.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada