The monoverse
I was extremely pleased to read Lee Smolin’s article on the multiverse (17 January, p 24) 鈥� it’s nice to know that I am not the only person who thinks parallel universes should be confined to speculative fiction.
I am, however, puzzled by his proposed “principles”. They look remarkably like axioms. In particular, the second, “that time is real”, presents problems. Cosmologists appear to discuss at least three levels of existence: not existing, existing and “really existing”. For example, they often ask questions along the lines of: “we have detected the so-and-so particle, but does it really exist?”
Would it be possible for cosmologists to define these three properties? While they are at it, perhaps they could clarify their claim for an infinite number of universes: which infinity do they mean, and why?
Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK
The monoverse
Lee Smolin asks questions about recent ideas in cosmology and how they are formed. While inevitably theoretical, cosmology eventually has to subject itself to empirical, observable reality.
My perception is that this isn’t happening as much as it did. Call me old-fashioned, but I still think Karl Popper’s idea of “falsifiability” remains a good standard to adhere to.
As we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which is arguably the most Popper-tested theory ever, one would hope science generally would prioritise empirical enquiry. But in recent years it is difficult to see this happening in a discipline I have loved since I was a teenager.
I welcome free-thinking ideas such as the multiverse. But surely science itself should be challenging the theorists face-to-face to provide a truly testable theory, sooner rather than later. Aside from some vague possibilities, we aren’t being given serious tests, and one asks: “Is this actually science?”
Petersfield, Hampshire, UK
The monoverse
As a biologist I found it rather sad to read the defeatist article by Lee Smolin. If understanding the mechanics of the universe were easy it would have been worked out years ago. Doesn’t he see that it is likely to be the ultimate puzzle to solve in science?
We do have one clue: the universe we inhabit has allowed life to originate and, in one case we know of, a species has evolved that should ultimately be capable of fully understanding the universe and its workings.
If, however, studies of the universe show that there are a large number of anomalies that cannot be reconciled, this might suggest that we are “living” in a vast, complicated “computer game” which isn’t fully internally integrated.
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, UK
Glasgow's failure
The connections drawn by Harry Burns between public health, child development and social welfare are important and deserve respect (24 January, p 26).
However we should not accept the narrative that attributes poor public health in Glasgow to the de-industrialisation of the 1970s and 1980s. Shipbuilding and steelmaking were physically hard and hazardous occupations. They may have provided a living wage, but it is difficult to see them as a source of general joy, health and well-being.
De-industrialisation has contributed to, rather than detracted from, better public health throughout the UK. The question is why Glasgow has reaped fewer benefits and suffered more detriments from de-industrialisation than any other city in the UK (and possibly any other city in Europe).
It is now over 30 years since Glasgow’s reinvention as a tourist destination under the “Glasgow’s Miles Better” campaign, and exactly 25 years since it became the UK’s first European Capital of Culture.
If lack of a sense of purpose is the problem in Glasgow, why has it failed to find a new one? Perhaps the root causes of Glasgow’s low life expectancy are as much anthropological as economic or political.
Shepton Mallet, Somerset, UK
Costing carbon
Fred Pearce worries that falling fossil fuel prices may discourage investment in alternative energy sources (17 January, p 22). But can we exploit falling oil and coal prices to encourage investment in renewables?
Consider an international agreement fixing the price to the retailer of each fossil fuel type at its present level. When the producer’s price falls further, the gain made by the wholesaler can be remitted to the state, and this surplus can be used to subsidise the purchase price of renewables.
This could be a golden opportunity to introduce a mechanism with the same effect as a carbon tax, which is painless to the consumer and supports sustainable energy production.
Glengarriff, Ireland
Evolution made easy
Colin Barras’s article on plasticity proposes that advantageous behaviour can persist until a compatible mutation makes it permanent and a base for further change (17 January, p 26).
For a long time I have struggled to see how evolution could have worked in the limited time available. Conventional thinking requires each evolutionary step to be a coincidence of two unlikely events: a genetic mutation and a change of behaviour. In the period between one and the other, no benefit and some disadvantage is usually on offer.
Plasticity is one of those light-bulb ideas which explain so much; once recognised it seems obvious, and we are left wondering why we hadn’t thought of it before.
Wymondham, Norfolk, UK
Nuclear betrayal
You described the UK as “rushing to build” its nuclear weapons and facilities (24 January, p 5). The reason for this was treachery from our ally, the US.
At the end of the second world war, the US passed a law forbidding the sharing of nuclear technology with any other nation. This was manifestly unfair to the UK, which during the wartime years had generously shared its technology, including nuclear science and engineering.
The UK government had a stark choice: build our own, or lose all influence internationally. When the US government realised that we were going nuclear, the UK was threatened with withdrawal of aid and threatened in the way that rogue states are nowadays.
This distrust made it all the more important to proceed, especially when the USSR showed its own nuclear capability. France developed its nuclear programme separately from the US, and still keeps it separate; it was less trusting than the UK, and may have been right.
Walsall, West Midlands, UK
Musical monkeys
Hal Hodson points out that the “speech” of great apes is limited to discrete sounds (10 January, p 39). They don’t have the vocal flexibility of gibbons, which are able to “sing” a greater degree of meaning into their sounds.
Perhaps the apes’ problem isn’t with their vocal cords but with their ears. If you are tone deaf then one woo-hoo sounds much like another. Has anyone ever tried singing to apes? Perhaps a musicologist could help investigate what the apes can distinguish.
Kenley, Surrey, UK
Don't halve a cow!
One of the graphics accompanying Linda Geddes’s article on red meat gave the percentage of various animals that is edible (24 January, p 30). It indicated that only 40 per cent of a cow could be eaten. But in a less wasteful society most of it is eaten, as it used to be in the UK.
The skin, if not turned into leather, can be treated and used like pork crackling. The stomach can be eaten as tripe. The intestine is still eaten widely in West Africa, where I come from. Offal is sought after. We boil the feet, without muscle, to make stock.
The bones are ground into powder, making thickeners for food. Even what remains 鈥� horns and hair 鈥� can be turned into buttons, oil and absorbent materials. Less than 10 per cent of a cow is inedible, and none need be wasted.
Stafford, UK
Whale of a brain
The review of the book The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins has whetted my appetite (10 January, p 43). It acknowledges that “sperm whales have the largest brains on the planet” but goes on to say that “relative to body size, the brains of dolphins are second only to humans”.
Why is the assumption that relative brain size is important so common? Is it designed to place humans in the best possible light? If one thinks of the brain as a computer, it seems less than obvious that it must be sized in proportion to the body it lives in.
Why, for example, should a whale need an especially large brain when a hummingbird 鈥� which has complex tasks to perform 鈥� gets by with a tiny one? I would love to know.
Llanelian, Conwy, UK
Babies' babble bath
Aviva Rutkin reports that “by the age of 3, children from affluent families have heard some 30 million more words than their impoverished counterparts” (29 November 2014, p 14).
If they are awake for 12 hours a day, that amounts to 38 extra words a minute, every minute. Add the words an impoverished child hears, and they could be hearing more than one word a second. That seems a very high number. Any error?
Den Haag, Netherlands
Babies' babble bath
鈥� The figure was an estimate calculated by researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley and assumed a 14-hour day. In their 1995 book , they note that, “even if our estimates are too high by half, the differences… are so great that even the best of intervention programs could only hope to keep the children of families on welfare from falling behind the children in the working-class families.”
All-natural asbestos
In a 快猫短视频 leader last year, asbestos was included in a list of “synthetic” chemicals (29 November 2014, p 3).
I am not aware of any chemical plants that synthesise asbestos, but the silicate minerals with this name have been mined for at least the last 4000 years.
The inclusion of asbestos on the list was presumably accidental, but it is still a useful illustration of the need to reclaim the word “chemical” in modern parlance.
Of course ardent chemophobes should avoid all risky chemicals by sticking to entirely natural products. For example, they could have a dinner of death cap mushroom and fugu liver risotto with a deadly nightshade side salad. They can then soothe themselves with a relaxing rub with essential oil of poison ivy. All that should go nicely with the asbestos.
Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada
And ultimately…
I was delighted to learn that 快猫短视频 knows how to say a prayer (17 January, p 5), and even more delighted that it appears to have been heard. The same morning that I read you had offered a prayer for the Catholic church to review its attitude to contraception, I learned that Pope Francis had made comments widely interpreted as suggesting precisely that. Please try it again on other matters of importance.
Dublin, Ireland
For the record
鈥� In our interview with NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan (10 January, p 26), we printed a rough estimate of the distance travelled on Mars by the Opportunity rover. The latest figure from is 41.8 kilometres, double the distance stated.
鈥� We understated the nitrogen content of Earth’s atmosphere by a fair margin (24 January, p 13). It does of course account for 78 per cent by volume of dry air.