Rocky chemistry
Caroline Williams’s article about the mysterious lights that appear over Hessdalen in Norway was interesting, but disappointingly vague about their hypothetical power source (10 May, p 40).
“Rocks rich in iron and zinc” and “rocks rich in copper” could indeed possibly form a natural battery, but rocks rich in metallic zinc and iron are extremely rare. Nearly all ores of these metals contain them as compounds, which would not function as anodes in a battery.
Copper ores containing uncombined metal are slightly less rare, but the rock bearing them would only contain a very small amount.
Could we please have more information about the chemistry of the rocks that were able “to light a lamp”?
Earby, Lancashire, UK
For the record
鈥� Our feature on treating schizophrenia without drugs (8 February, p 32), reported the results of a trial that compared “people who stopped taking antipsychotics with those who continued their treatment”. We should have made it clearer that although the aim was to wean people off their drugs, few of those in what the trial organisers call the “dose reduction/discontinuation” group succeeded in stopping their medication completely. By the last two years of the experiment, 42.3 per cent of this group were living “without substantial antipsychotic medication”, compared to 23.5 per cent of the continuation group.
鈥� We were wide of the mark when locating New Caledonia (10 May, p 7). The nation lies 1300 kilometres to the east of Australia, not 3000 to the west.
Handy measure
Samantha Murphy’s feature on the health benefits of obesity included discussion of how best to quantify excess weight (3 May, p 44). In my clinical experience, roughly gauging abdominal flab by grabbing a handful gives a great view of “fatness” that discounts body frame and muscularity.
Manuka, ACT, Australia
Dead certainty
Gareth Jones questions the use of unclaimed bodies for medical science, and is a perfect example of why it has become so difficult, and at times impossible, to get anything of any importance done (19 April, p 26).
One would have to look long and hard to find a more straightforward and sensible use of an unclaimed dead body, yet here we have an educated person who takes issue with this practice since, rather obviously, there has been no informed consent.
Look no further than this bit of nonsense to understand why consensus can rarely, if ever, be obtained regarding truly controversial issues.
San Diego, California, US
Cut and thrust
I enjoyed the revelation that sailfish use their bills as swords to slash at their prey (26 April, p 17).
It seems to me that their very large dorsal fin is a lateral stabiliser for the animals’ incredibly fast swordplay.
Could we infer that other billfish, such as marlins and swordfish, also fence with their prey, but don’t need such sails because their bodies are heavier and “taller”, thereby increasing their stability?
Cape Town, South Africa
Birdbrained
If pigeons are so smart, why do they still make kamikaze flights into my bedroom window, leaving messy corpses on my patio for the foxes to dine on?
Bloxham, Oxfordshire, UK
Birdbrained
Kirsten Weir’s article discussed the intelligence of pigeons (3 May, p 40). In my experience, wood pigeons have some counting skill.
I was brought up on a farm where pigeons were persecuted mercilessly, but they were smart enough to steer clear of danger. If someone hid in the bushes, the pigeons would stay away for a long time. If two people hid and one came out, the same.
But if three went in and then two came out, the pigeons thought the coast was clear. This shows some understanding of multiples at least.
Wimborne, Dorset, UK
Wealth creation
Further to previous letters on how intellectual property law affects innovation (10 May, p 30), I note that there was no copyright in Shakespeare’s day.
He copied from others, and others copied from him. And yet he became very wealthy, as can be seen from his will.
Some people are fond of insisting that, without strong intellectual property laws, content creators will have no incentive. In response to them I ask: what was Shakespeare’s incentive to create?
Hamilton, New Zealand
Evolving minds
Philip Cunliffe’s letter trying to explain the beginnings of consciousness misses the point (10 May, p 30). Of course an animal benefits if it can correlate information received from its senses, and use memory to aid in interpreting it. But that can be done by a computer. What need is there of actual consciousness?
We have no reason to think that a conscious animal would have an advantage over a “philosophical zombie” that processes and interprets information just as well but is not conscious.
To say there must be an advantage because otherwise consciousness would not have arisen is simply begging the question.
Les Essarts-le-Roi, France
Religious reduction
Graham Lawton presents some fascinating facts and theories about the advance of secularism (3 May, p 30).
Although his proposed explanations may all be true, his numbers imply a loss of about one billion believers in a decade 鈥� far more than could be explained by such gradual processes. This collapse must be explained by specific circumstances, and two immediately come to mind.
The first is child abuse in the Catholic church and the church’s many attempts at covering up these crimes. The second is reflection on the pernicious effects of religion, prompted by the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
These evil acts have therefore accelerated their own remedy.
London, UK
British bees
There is certainly a problem with beekeeping here in the UK, as Andrew Beattie says (3 May, p 29). In fact, more than 95 per cent of beekeepers in the British Isles do not keep the native European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), but foreign varieties.
For the past 100 years, there has been an influx of Italian (A. m. ligustica) and Carniolan (A. m. carnica) honeybees into the UK. These have pushed our native subspecies of honeybee almost to extinction.
Many beekeepers don’t know they are keeping non-native bees, and those who do cannot easily source A. m. mellifera stocks.
Demand for native dark bees far outstrips supply, so interested beekeepers are restricted to local hybrids at best. Establishing reserves and queen-rearing apiaries could allow environmentally aware beekeepers to find native bees, and would play an important part in protecting our ecosystem.
Our native bees are weather-tolerant and inexpensive to keep, meaning we should treat them as an economic and genetic resource as climate change progresses.
Poolewe, Highland, UK
Science, not sexism
Elizabeth Carrey has dragged gender into an issue where it is irrelevant in questioning the treatment of Haruko Obokata, the Japanese stem cell researcher who was found guilty of misconduct by her research institute (10 May, p 30). Had Obokata been male, would the story have unfolded any differently? No, it would not.
Carrey feels sorry for Obokata, but I believe her letter implies that she would not be sorry for a man in the same circumstances. That is sexism, not the Obokata affair itself. What I detect here is discomfort with criticism if the target happens to be a woman.
Of course, it is the science which is really being criticised, not the person. Are we to become fearful of applying the same critical standards to scientific research authored by women as to that authored by men?
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, UK
Religious reduction
Thank you for a great article on the global decline in religious belief. It is good to bring numbers and analysis to the subject.
However, though religion may have grown from angst and vulnerability, there is no mention in your feature of awe and wonder.
I am now 68 and have spent my life in a world I found, to use the vernacular, gobsmackingly awesome. Maybe my daily sense of amazement has grown from religious faith or, possibly, from reading 快猫短视频 since the age of 13. Thanks for decades of inspiration.
Dronfield, Derbyshire, UK
Religious reduction
There is an argument for a fifth type of atheism in addition to those you listed: utilitarian. This is a system that stimulates useful behaviours in a community.
The non-religious Sunday Assembly seems to fall into this category, and I submit that nearly all religion does when sensible people are given a chance to admit their doubts about supernatural overseers. Unfortunately, religion instils a fear that god is watching everything we do, so it is hard to get a straight answer to how many people harbour these doubts.
It will be interesting to see how the data changes when people start to think, “why bother with god when we have the NSA watching us constantly?”
Belgium, Wisconsin, US
Religious reduction
It would be interesting to extend Lawton’s excellent piece to consider belief in the supernatural as well as belief in god. As he says, while there is a decline in conventional religious belief, many people hold tightly to magical thinking, without seeking rational justification.
There is every need to apply scientific empiricism to the study of belief. After more than 30 years of counselling the victims of religious cults, I can say with certainty that critical, scientific thinking is the best way to overcome the delusions of supernaturalism.
This in no way devalues the ethical teachings of religions, but we should all be free to question, experiment and debate.
Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, UK
Religious reduction
There are two other major factors driving decline in religiosity that Lawton did not mention. The internet has allowed people, especially young people, to access and discuss ideas and customs that are outside their own society.
In addition, the worldwide publicity of the New Atheist movement has made it much more socially acceptable to be identified as an atheist. Prior to this it was a derogatory term in many countries.
Folkestone, Kent, UK
Religious reduction
The economic boom in Ireland may have fuelled atheism, but two other forces were also at play.
First, child abuse revelations relating to the clergy came thick and fast during this period. Second, while Ireland was under British rule, the services provided by the state existed mainly for the small British-leaning part of the population. The Catholic church gave Irish people an institution they could belong to that was a realistic alternative to the state.
The church was very strongly involved in education, health and local politics. Catholicism became synonymous with patriotism, and this gave the Catholic church a stronger role in everyday life than it would have had in a self-ruled country. This promoted religious belief and observance.
Wherever a population moves away from the official institutions of that society, an unofficial institution takes over, and religions are well positioned to take on this role. Atheism is kept at bay longer in such a society. In Ireland’s case, secularism grew as foreign rule faded from memory.
Dublin, Ireland