Build for the future
Most of the thousands of deaths reported when typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines (16 November, p 6) were caused by building collapse and drowning. Between 70 and 80 per cent of buildings and homes in the storm’s path were destroyed.
However, we already have the technology and expertise to build typhoon-proof buildings, with some cheap solutions suitable for remote areas. Such buildings will sustain less damage during typhoons, saving lives and allowing rapid, inexpensive reconstruction.
We have made progress in managing disasters after the fact, but it is surprising that we still have not established global planning and design guidelines to avoid mass casualties. Very little funding is going towards implementing design rules to improve the built infrastructure, as these extreme events seem to be rapidly forgotten.
Melbourne, Australia
Eternal optimists
Bent Flyvbjerg makes a valid criticism of the political mindset behind many megaprojects, with favourable bias applying to both costs and benefits (30 November, p 28). This applies not just to megaprojects, however, but to any project, large or small. There seems to be an ingrained unwillingness to look at issues rationally and make decisions based on evidence, rather than optimistic instincts.
Maybe this is an inherently human trait, and one we apply to personal relationships as well. No one conducts a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on a fresh relationship; there is always a presumption that it will be successful, previous experience notwithstanding.
Staines, Middlesex, UK
Right to retract
You reported the decision by the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology to withdraw a paper that linked GM maize to cancer in rats (7 December, p 7). Retraction of a scientific article should always be a last resort. Even when inconclusive, an article can contribute to scientific discourse on a topic.
However, there are instances where the conclusions of a paper significantly overinterpret the findings, as was the case here. This is particularly problematic when the subject of the paper is of considerable public and media interest, and so I believe the journal acted responsibly and appropriately in reaching its decision.
London, UK
Divine inspiration
It is no surprise that several people have sniped at David Robson’s gripping piece on how religious gatherings likely played a key role in the founding of human society (5 October, p 32). But there’s no need to bridle at the suggestion.
For virtually the entire history of society, the default state of advanced thinkers was theistic. The astronomer and the heaven-watcher have almost always been the same person: the individual interested in big questions.
Let us not forget that at least three of the coveted seats at a certain celebrated event in a little town called Bethlehem went to “wise men from the east”, people the original text arguably identified as astronomers. Merry Christmas!
Hong Kong, China
Safe reactors
Reader Vernon Barber uses outdated arguments against nuclear power in the UK (23 November, p 34). The only civil nuclear accident that resulted in a large area being abandoned was at Chernobyl. It involved a type of reactor never built in the west, and which will never be built again.
Furthermore, there has never been a successful terrorist attack on any civil nuclear installation. The amount of firepower and explosives needed to cause damage that would release radioactivity is beyond most small armies.
Sheffield, UK
Brains are us
Neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland argues that it can be difficult to accept that “you’re just your brain” (30 November, p 30). So it would seem. When she says, “I’ve made my peace with my brain,” it rather suggests that she regards herself as an entity distinct from her brain.
Even saying “my brain has made peace with itself” would imply, through the use of the possessive determiner “my”, that there is not a one-to-one identity relation between self and brain. Perhaps the best phrase would have been “this brain is at peace with itself”.
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
You, to a tea
I read your story on identifying people using “soft” biometrics, such as ear shape (30 November, p 22). I have long regarded gait as a surefire identifier.
Many people found my identical twin sisters hard to distinguish. The only time I had difficulty was when they were at a distance, but it only required one of them to stand or walk away and they were instantly recognisable.
Frankly, I doubt there are any more personal characteristics than the manner in which we bear ourselves, walk, run, sit down or stand up 鈥� or even the way in which we drink a cup of tea.
Tintagel, Cornwall, UK
You, to a tea
If biometrics, soft or otherwise, become the standard way to unlock access to computers, what happens to people who lose the hand with the recorded fingerprint, or the eye with the correct retina pattern, or have a stroke which alters their typing?
I assume there would have to be a way to reset access. If so, what would stop someone using that to break into your computer in the first place?
Bronte, New South Wales, Australia
Light fantastic
Valerie Jamieson is to be praised in advocating that we minimise lighting in our towns for the sake of astronomy (30 November, p 46). I fully agree with her. When I see photos taken from space of Earth lit up like a Christmas tree at night, even in areas normally considered remote and unspoilt, I am filled with despair.
In my own town, and in the suburb where I live, all I see is ever-brighter lighting. The modest sodium vapour lamp next to my home has been replaced by a white light that could double as a lighthouse.
Birds can be seen flitting about in the predawn hours, and in summer magpies sit in nearby trees and pick off the moths attracted to it. The carnage inflicted on night-flying insects by the powerful lamps used to illuminate churches and monuments has to be seen to be believed.
Yet the local newspapers carry appeals that the streets are not adequately lit, so brighter lighting is installed. One can only imagine the response to an appeal to the contrary.
Toulouse, France
Art of war
The photo of abstract cave symbols 鈥� divided rectangles and dots 鈥� in Alison George’s article on the origins of intelligence may indicate that the mind and culture of early Homo sapiens were more advanced than we realise (23 November, p 36). Anthropologists trying to interpret these images should seek help from strategists at any war college. What we may be looking at is a classic plan of battle involving two or more groups of foot soldiers.
The dots in the middle could represent a known number of troops, led by a blocking phalanx possibly equipped with long spears. The more abstract blocks to the left and right represent the position of an enemy of unknown strength.
This diagram may have been of a battle yet to come or one that took place and that serves as a tutorial for future engagements.
As distasteful as this thought is, it would not be at all surprising given the long and pervasive history of our use of warfare to solve territorial or resource disputes.
Naperville, Illinois, US
Art of war
One aspect of the rectangular cave art designs featured in George’s story seems to have been missed. You refer to these as “abstract” or “geometric”, and there are various examples of zigzags and dots adorning other caves, but the thing that sets these apart from images of bison and antelope, or shapes of hands, is that they are visual representations of something that the artists could not have witnessed.
However, perhaps they were representative of something that existed 鈥� perhaps a plan of a burial area or a corral for animals, or stores. The dots could represent the passage of animals or people through the area.
Or perhaps this is a plan of something that they wanted to build, an early piece of town planning. If so, it is something that both doesn’t yet exist, and could one day be real.
Hatch End, Middlesex, UK
Methane storm
You report that “a stormier Arctic could fast-track methane gas into the atmosphere, potentially accelerating global warming” (30 November, p 18). But what is important is how much methane goes into the atmosphere over a period of years, not just after a storm. This is determined by the rate at which the methane is liberated from the sediment, which probably doesn’t depend much on storminess.
Les Essarts-le-Roi, France
Switch off
Laura Slater’s idea that delivery-van drivers should be asked to switch off their engines while making deliveries is interesting (7 December, p 33).
During a brief stay in Switzerland about 20 years ago, we were sternly informed that we needed to switch off our engines every time the car was stationary, for example at traffic lights. I have to say that the rule was almost universally observed.
Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK
Science vs economics
Mark van Vugt’s article looked at Darwinian economics (23 November, p 30). Science, which aims to describe the real world, is based on the laws of physics and chemistry with defined units of measure. Economics, in the artificial world of money, is based on questionable and unreliable assumptions about human behaviour, and uses undefined and variable units of measure. There is no science in it.
Hawthorn, South Australia