Scotland's future
“A perfect storm of shifting demographics” dramatically overstates the demographic issues in Scotland (31 May, p 15). As someone quoted in the article, I’d like to clarify a few issues.
Across the Western world, baby boomer cohorts are retiring, with serious macroeconomic consequences. Scotland is relatively well placed against international comparisons, with a less severe ageing population problem than Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
It is true that Scotland has a slightly more severe problem than the rest of the UK, but the magnitude of this difference is small and can be closed by relatively small increases in migration. Scotland has seen the lowest population growth rates of any country in western Europe over the past century.
If an independent Scotland manages to achieve population growth rates consistent with other independent countries, the final sentence of the article could equally well read “If independence goes well, a youthful yes vote could prove to have been the best choice possible.”
Edinburgh, UK
Eurosceptic science
I read with great interest Michael Brooks’s article on the potential impact of eurosceptic parties on UK research (31 May, p 28).
UK Independence Party (UKIP) policies are very pro-science, especially regarding research and development. What Brooks fails to put into the equation is the 拢150 billion that will be freed up when the UK leaves the European Union. This money will be pumped back into the economy, especially into science, as UKIP recognises that the way forward is through manufacturing, particularly in the high-tech sector where the country excels.
Research into energy production would also see massive financial benefits.
If Brooks understood the make-up of UKIP with respect to its membership he might be pleasantly surprised by the number of scientists in its ranks.
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK
Eurosceptic science
Michael Brooks makes the argument that disenchantment with the EU, recently expressed in European elections, will negatively affect UK science on the basis that for every 拢1 we contribute in research funding, we get 拢1.40 back.
This calculation excludes the costs to UK science of having to compete in a dog-eat-dog circus of labyrinthine complexity.
UK scientists typically spend as much as half their time filling in forms and cobbling together trans-EU consortia, a precondition for funding. Who bears this cost? The universities, which are increasingly obliged to employ full-time consultants for any chance of success.
London, UK
Bacterial bias
Tragically, microbial classism is still alive. Jop de Vrieze managed to get through a whole article about his microbiome without mentioning the other important contributors to his microbial health: archaea, fungi and bacteriophages (17 May, p 42).
Since archaea are the producers of the methane he may happily expel as a greenhouse gas, we should at least acknowledge it. Fungi are much maligned but live contentedly in our colon, mostly, chewing on the carbohydrates passing through. They also produce alcohol, and thus we have the appropriate enzymes in our liver to break it down.
Bacteriophages 鈥� viruses that parasitise bacteria 鈥� outnumber bacteria by a ratio of about 10 to 1, and seem to strongly influence the bacterial microbiome.
De Vrieze’s bodily microbiome is far more complex and interesting than just a bacterial farm. It is a whole menagerie of life, with thousands of species living and interacting with each other and their host. Long may they keep us healthy.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Profit-seeking
Jeremy Rifkin contends that the not-for-profit sector is an institutional mechanism that neither government nor private enterprise provides (31 May, p 48).
Putting aside the fact that that much of this “third sector” is directly funded by governments, and that many of the elements Rifkin cites, such as education and healthcare, are contracted out to the for-profit sector, what remains is arguably little different from simple profit-making.
Often “not for profit” is a convenient code for “not for tax”, with profit being entirely the motivating principle.
Pharmaceutical companies, for example, gain tax relief by shunting profits into “research charities”, which develop new products or markets for those same companies. In such cases, Rifkin’s not-for-profit sector is in large part indistinguishable from its profit-seeking comparator.
The third sector undoubtedly serves important functions, but it is most definitely not the unique alternative Rifkin claims it to be.
Swansea, UK
Profit-seeking
This point was raised during our interview with Rifkin, but unfortunately space did not permit elaboration. For those interested, the issue is covered in chapter 14 of his book The Zero Marginal Cost Society.
First-person shooter
As an archer of more than 40 years, I realise after reading Douglas Heaven’s article on obsessive gaming that the target face is the archer’s fruit machine (31 May, p 38).
I have often said to beginners that the sport can be addictive. Archery relies on repetition and conditioning, with a clear and colourful target but uncertainty built in because of the variables acting on each shot.
It would appear to have all the elements of gaming, and I wonder whether psychologists exploring gaming addiction might extend their research into target sports like archery.
Meanwhile, I will simply explain to the next enthusiastic archery novice I meet that they have got caught in a ludic loop.
Stockport, UK
Information overload
David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto expouse an idea that is increasingly common: that the universe and all its minute particulars are somehow “information” (24 May, p 30).
A lot of fancy footwork has gone into this concept, which so far has not produced much beyond attempts to shoehorn physical processes into a metaphysical system that lacks any sense of the law-like nature of phenomena.
The reverse may be more likely to be true: that what we call information is a trivial by-product of deeper physical laws, and by itself lacks predictive powers. Causation is still the touchstone of science, and correlation just doesn’t cut it.
McFarland, Wisconsin, US
Waking the kraken
I enjoyed Stephen Battersby’s article on exploring the methane lakes of Titan (24 May, p 44).
It seems that a well-aimed radar sweep by Cassini over Kraken Mare, timed to coincide with the predicted tidal surge, might well detect tides, waves and even the theorised whirlpool at the Throat of Kraken. Let’s hope the geometry of the sweep already scheduled for the Cassini probe this August is favourable. Many years and dollars will be required before another spacecraft visits Saturn’s largest moon.
Lampeter, Ceredigion, UK
Language pattern
In order to investigate whether or not the human capacity for language is innate, Jennifer Culbertson and David Adger constructed an articial language (5 April, p 11).
I would argue that it is not plausible to construct an artificial language within a natural one and expect native speakers to disregard their previous experience.
Specifically, “shoes blue two”, the phrase used in the study, was always going to be the preferred word order over the alternative “shoes two blue”, because a native English speaker is more likely to recognise the former as something heard in the context of a stock count, conventionally written “shoes, blue (2)”.
Cambridge, UK
Clear blue sky
Valerie Moyses writes of “kamikaze” pigeons crashing into her bedroom window (24 May, p 33). I had the same problem.
Having seen stickers in the shape of birds of prey attached to a transparent noise barrier at the side of a Polish highway, I found a source of these stickers in the UK.
Before I had time to affix them, I got rid of a tall mirror from the back of my bedroom. The pigeon strikes stopped.
I think the reflection of clear sky in the mirror made the birds believe there was a way through the room. Perhaps I shouldn’t clean my windows so obsessively.
Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK
Creative reward
Lawrence d’Oliveiro suggests that Shakespeare’s creativity was unaffected by the lack of intellectual property laws (24 May, p 32).
However, a significant amount of his finanical support came through patronage, from aristocrats and likely the court. It is worth rereading Shakespeare’s history plays in particular with this in mind.
What more might he have been capable of, had he been able to make a living as an independent author, with rights to income from reproduction of his works, and without the self-censorship that patronage implies?
London, UK
Moral maze
Morality is uniquely human, because no other species can spell out its “moral reasoning” or choose to change its morality (24 May, p 48).
Tigers undoubtedly have innate constraints on their behaviours, at least towards other tigers, but this is not the same as having morality.
There are no vegetarian tigers, not just because tigers are “built” to eat meat, but also 鈥� and more importantly 鈥� because tigers do not have the sort of minds that would enable them to decide that eating meat was wrong.
Mark Johnson is entitled to his views but I would suggest that they are largely speculation dressed up as science.
And as a final point, surely Johnson’s provocative challenge that “moral absolutism is immoral” is itself an example of moral absolutism.
Spaxton, Somerset, UK
Engine of growth
Stuart Leslie argues that patents on technology allowed James Watt to finance the development of the steam engine (10 May, p 30). However, Watt never invented anything resembling the modern steam engine.
Watt’s design was an incremental advancement on Thomas Newcomen’s engine from about 70 years earlier, which used steam at atmospheric pressure.Watt’s main innovation was the addition of a separate chamber for the condensation to take place, conserving heat and making the engine more efficient.
The modern high-pressure steam engine, where it is the introduction of the steam that does the work, was developed by mining engineer Richard Trevithick and others after Watt’s patent had expired. These later engineers did not seek patents, and freely copied from one another.
One could argue that Watt’s patent held back the industrial revolution by 20 years.
Hamilton, New Zealand
For the record
鈥� We misspelled the name of the Bangladeshi smartphone app for recording sexual harassment (31 May, p 21). It is called Protibadi.
鈥� Those reading our feature on paracetamol (31 May, p 34) may have found the stated maximum daily dose hard to swallow. It should have read six to eight 500 mg tablets 鈥� not 500 g tablets 鈥� over 24 hours.