Animal cruelty
I read with rising concern the opinion piece by Marc Bekoff and Daniel Ramp on the role of selectively killing animals in conservation efforts (21 June, p 26). What started as a promising argument in favour of valuing life rapidly descended into a confusion of welfare and death.
For the umpteenth time, commentators started talking about animal interests and ended up talking about human values. This isn’t helpful to either individual animals or the goal of conservation.
No one questions that animals shouldn’t suffer, whether in human care or in the wild by human agency (such as fox baiting in Australia). No one interested in conservation would suggest that an individual should suffer for the greater good.
But the conflating of death and welfare is a human drum that makes no reference to the animals themselves, and in the end such disrespectful thinking will bring harm to both them and us.
Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
For the record
鈥� Material error: the ball with dimpled morphing skin was made from two kinds of silicone (5 July, p 20).
鈥� In our review of Aaron Panofsky’s Misbehaving Science, Arthur Jensen’s name was misspelled (12 July, p 42).
A head for numbers
In Jonathon Keats’s assessment of warped maths, a more up-to-date example than damage to US bombers 70 years ago was available (21 June, p 46).
The recent observation by a top brain surgeon that cycle helmets were of questionable value related to his experience of seeing as many head injuries from those wearing them as .
He seems to have overlooked the fact that he probably saw 90 per cent of those with injuries sustained when not wearing a helmet, but only a few per cent of those who were properly equipped when they took a tumble 鈥� most of whom just remounted.
Ivy House, North Kilworth, UK
Turing 2.0
You propose that the Turing Test needs updating (14 June, p 5). However, you need look no further than the 快猫短视频 archive, for in your 9 October, 2004 edition, with tongue slightly in cheek, I suggested an improved version of the test.
Surprisingly, my proposal did gain some attention from those studying the subject, and in 2010 an expanded version was published as a letter in a special edition of the journal Kybernetes dedicated to the Turing Test ().
Alresford, Hampshire, UK
Shields up, captain
快猫短视频 reported on proposals to use a plasma shield to slow a spacecraft’s descent, reducing the need for heavy heat shielding (5 July, p 13).
This reminded me of other proposals I have seen that suggest something similar to protect astronauts from energetic particles on long space flights.
I claim no expertise in this area, but could the same equipment be used for both purposes, offering even greater weight savings?
Highfields, Leicester, UK
Split personality
You report on a woman becoming unconscious when electrodes in her brain stimulated “the claustrum”, suggesting this area of the brain could be the seat of consciousness (5 July, p 10)
However, we have a claustrum on each side of the brain. What would happen if her other claustrum were zapped? And can there be two seats of consciousness in one person?
Les Essarts-le-Roi, France
Power points
Managing consumer demand is a keen area of interest. Appliances that turn on when energy is most plentiful featured in our article on smart homes (5 July, p 18).
Power points
Michael Brooks’s article on the struggle to provide energy that is cheap, reliable and clean looks at half of the picture (21 June, p 32).
It is not enough to consider supplying power when consumers want it. We also need to encourage power use when it is available, particularly with renewables.
The technology needed to do this already exists. In our house, the water tank gets heated when our solar panels are generating excess power.
We need to encourage power use when a surplus is available, through price differentials and internet-linked devices that come on when there is excess power in the grid.
Ayr, Scotland, UK
Peaceful passing
For more than 30 years, whenever I talked about my near-death experience caused by an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts, I would emphasise how pleasant it was (28 June, p 17).
I remember feeling adrift and calm. My husband, who was present throughout the ordeal in the emergency ward, said what he saw was very different. According to him, I was very agitated as I struggled to breathe, and would go limp until the doctor called my name. Then I would start struggling to breathe again.
I tell my story as it may offer some comfort to anyone who is with a loved one in the final stages of their life. As your article suggests, the struggle to breathe is associated with increasing oxygen deprivation in the brain, which leads to those drifty, pleasant feelings, despite what it might look like to others.
Diamond Beach, New South Wales, Australia
Measures of success
Robert Adler’s review of variables defining success and sustainability seemed to have a couple of fundamental flaws (5 July, p 30).
Firstly, gross domestic product (GDP) is still used as a measure. This may be because it is easy to quantify, whereas well-being, happiness and peace do not fit neatly into the arithmetic of economics. Within expanding GDP, large sectors of society can be oppressed and miserable, particularly when there is substantial and increasing inequality.
Secondly, there is no mention of weapons or their use. The huge amounts spent on weapons, especially such items as nuclear missiles and warships, contribute much to GDP but do little to boost well-being, while the extensive use of conventional arms is associated with insecurity and misery.
If such strife could be abolished we might be on the way to living on a really happy planet where the other parameters explored by Adler would be more meaningful.
Reading, UK
Long and short of it
In your article on ants’ swimming skills, the measure used is how many body lengths an ant can cover per second (14 June, p 18).
However, it is well known that under crude measures such as this, small animals always outperform large animals.
A common example of this limited usefulness is measuring fleas’ jumping ability in body lengths, a criteria that no large animal could ever hope to match.
Statistical work on body size versus performance would need to be done to find a fairer and more relevant measure.
Rayne, Essex, UK
Weight lifting
I was surprised to find that the anti-obesity effect of testosterone was summarily dismissed in your feature (5 July, p 34).
The only fact given is that testosterone causes a slight decrease in body fat and a slight increase in lean body mass, with no change in overall body weight.
This may be true for non-obese subjects, but a recent study in (10.1056/NEJMoa1206168) reports marked weight loss in obese men with subnormal levels of testosterone, when they were treated with the hormone.
Admittedly, this was an uncontrolled study, but the weight loss was substantial and no placebo has ever been so effective.
What is remarkable is that this weight loss continued for five years, whereas weight loss with nearly all past or present obesity drugs will reach its maximum after six months.
However, even if testosterone could be patented for the treatment of obesity, it is unlikely that it would be approved for this use by regulatory authorities in view of the increased risks of heart attacks and strokes.
Welwyn Garden City, UK
An udder kind of milk
Because his milk does not contain antibodies, Pandya says it would not be suitable as replacement breast milk for infants. A version could be created for adults if there was a demand for it, although he admits that would be “kind of weird”.
An udder kind of milk
While I understand Ryan Pandya’s ethical and environmental concerns about the dairy industry, I feel that he may do better producing cultured milk that mimics human rather than cow’s milk (28 June, p 28).
Cow’s milk contains considerably more casein than human milk, a protein that can be difficult to digest 鈥� it is used as the base of some glues.
Casein has been linked to a range of complaints, and infant milks are already formulated to contain more whey than casein.
I must say though, drinking breast milk from any species as an adult is a little bizarre if you think about it.
Bristol, UK
Taking home gold
Regarding your article on conflict zone minerals, gold is used for connectors because it is corrosion-resistant, not because it is a good conductor (14 June, p 22). Copper and silver are better and far cheaper conductors, but surface oxidation can be a problem.
In addition, tin is not replacing all lead in solder 鈥� only in applications where there is a potential for lead poisoning. The alloy materials in these solders may be silver, copper, zinc, bismuth, as well as tin.
Richardson, Texas, US
Eat your greens
Your item on deducing Neanderthal diets from fossil faeces assumes there is only a choice between eating meat and being vegetarian (28 June, p 7).
The importance of fish is often overlooked, and that of shellfish almost always forgotten.
The interesting discovery of plant sterols in 50,000-year-old stool samples does not necessarily mean that the people leaving them had eaten the plants that produced them.
Filter-feeding molluscs such as oysters, mussels and clams contain good levels of plant sterols, which they accumulate from the tiny phytoplankton on which they feed.
The finding, which was after all made in Spain, could simply mean that the recipe for palaeo-paella included mussels or clams, or that they had started the meal with a few oysters.
Whitstable Kent, UK
Stand up for science
I read your report on sea-level rise twice because I couldn’t believe how unsure climate scientists appear to be (28 June, p 8).
Phrases like “that could mean”, “may have already passed” and “if they are right” were scattered throughout. The best was “I would probably take the question mark off now.” Probably! Oh, come on!
Imagine what people would think if politicians and business leaders spoke like this. It would not exactly inspire confidence.
There are very few politicians whose careers have been ruined by a statement which didn’t materialise 10 or 50 years down the line. So come on climate scientists, pull up your socks and gird your loins. If we don’t get our act together on climate change, the Greenland ice sheets will melt and many millions of people living in coastal areas will be displaced. See, it’s quite easy, isn’t it?
Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK