Glasgow fraying
I am not sure if Jan Karpinski is being condescending or has simply missed the point in claiming that de-industrialisation is not the source of Glasgow’s enduring health and social problems (7 February, p 54).
Shipbuilding and steel making in Glasgow were certainly physically hard as Karpinski writes. They also brought workers a living wage. When those industries closed down, many thousands of families were abruptly flung into poverty, and the adverse effects of poverty on health are well documented.
Perhaps human society is classless in leafy country areas like Somerset in western England, but in big conurbations like Glasgow, it certainly is not. Nor is the city a singular entity as Karpinski seems to believe.
It is a city of many thousands of people who occupy very different strata in our unequal society, and who are either flying high as the city recasts itself as a tourist and international sports venue, or who are still struggling to survive after having their livelihoods kicked away from under them.
Glasshouses, North Yorkshire, UK
Planck calls
Further to Vernon Barber’s speculation (7 February, p 54), if we do turn out to be autonomous avatars in a computer simulation, then Planck’s constant is the limit of the model’s resolution.
Harlow, Essex, UK
Enemy combat ants
I was interested to read Flora Graham’s article about ants tolerating other ants, as long as they were of a different size (newscientist.com/article/dn26872). This contrasts with behaviour I observed while living in Papua New Guinea.
Two species had encountered each other while foraging on a tree trunk. The black ants were able to grasp one of the smaller brown ants in their mandibles and carry it away. Meanwhile, several of the brown ants could collectively pin down a black ant and drag it off. The battle line moved back and forth for many minutes before I moved on. No living in harmony for these two different-sized species.
Arnside, Carnforth, Cumbria, UK
Forever, quantified
Fred Pearce writes that the clean-up of the UK’s Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site is scheduled to end by 2120, in 105 years (24 January, p 8). This brings to mind a common saying here in France. It translates as “we are not going to wait for 107 years” 鈥� which is to say, we are not going to wait forever. The origin may have something to do with a long dispute between our countries.
Compi猫gne, France
A yawn a minute
Contagious yawning may indeed be sparked by the action of mirror neurons as Chris Good suggests (24 January, p 54). But perhaps there is more to it than that.
Maybe a triggering yawn merely implants the idea of yawning, which then sparks an urge to yawn. I need only think about yawning to set myself off, rather than having to see someone else yawn first. In fact, I yawned twice while writing this.
Whitwell, Isle of Wight, UK
Beaver fever
Colin Bargery remarks on the perceived risk of catching a tapeworm from beavers (3 January, p 55).
Here in Canada, tapeworms are not considered a threat from beavers, unlike “beaver fever” 鈥� a colloquial name for the disease giardiasis. It is caused by the protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia, carried by beavers and muskrats. The protozoa live happily in fresh water, and can colonise human water supplies, so stringent purification is required to get rid of them.
Banff, a famous mountain resort in western Canada, got its water from what was considered a pristine mountain stream. It was provided without treatment, until the rate of “beaver fever” put off tourists. An expedition sent upstream discovered a beaver dam and high levels of Giardia in beaver faeces and in the water. The water is now treated.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Groupthink for all
In describing rituals as rigid, arbitrary behaviours that are tangential to achieving any practical goal, Dan Jones reminded me that they are not confined to African tribes, descendants of Vikings, or children (17 January, p 36).
Sociologists have categorised much of the activity in large organisations as rituals designed to foster conformity and group identity, even in rational goal-driven organisations such as universities.
Having worked in one such institution, I found the arcane duties prescribed by the Brazilian simpatia oddly familiar.
Darlington, Western Australia
Do mitochondria, too
Bitner-Glindzicz has confirmed that the project will be able to examine mitochondrial DNA in those with rare diseases.
Do mitochondria, too
I hope that Maria Bitner-Glindzicz is including mitochondrial DNA in her project to collect 100,000 genomes to gain insights into disease (24 January, p 27).
A rare mitochondrial mutation has changed the course of my life, making me uncomfortably warm most of the time. I can usually spot others with this condition by their damp clothing or scanty attire, which during winter weather often invites the question, “Aren’t you cold?”
Mitochondrial mutations do not necessarily kill, and may improve the quality of life. Let us not ignore them.
Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Faith in the evidence
I was agreeing with E.O. Wilson (24 January, p 28) until he said: “I’m not an atheist 鈥� I’m a scientist. Atheism is the belief that there is no god.”
Most atheists, including myself, say there is no god not because of whim but because in thousands of years of philosophising there has never been proof otherwise. True scientists would not accept such a major axiom without proof.
Also, we don’t want to conquer anyone, as Wilson claims. People can believe any crazy thing they want. The atheist organisations that I belong to just want to keep religion out of the realm of government and stop the US from turning into a theocracy. Also, it would be nice if they paid their fair share of taxes.
Agnosticism is an untenable position and just shows that one is afraid of the word “atheist” because religions have denigrated it for centuries.
Having observed for myself how humans treat each other and the environment, if some god were to present itself, I might accept its existence but I would not worship it.
Gainesville, Florida, US
Plastic promise
Although Christina Reed portrays the grim side of plastics, there is hope with new biodegradable materials on the horizon (31 January, p 28).
It has been known for a long time that biodegradable alternatives exist; the main problem is the cost of the chemicals needed to make them.
Many of the big users of plastic bottles use plant matter rather than petrochemicals as their raw materials. Even so, the end product is chemically indistinguishable from petrochemical-derived plastic and is not biodegradable.
I am part of a group developing a process called oxidative hydrothermal dissolution, which, when applied to coal, produces chemicals which are precursors for making biodegradable plastic. If we succeed, we’ll produce biodegradable plastic indistinguishable from types currently used, with the bonus of keeping it inexpensive.
West Perth, Western Australia
ET snubs broadband
Travis Metcalfe believes that because rocky planets could have developed very early in the life of the galaxy, planets with advanced civilisations should be everywhere (31 January, p 13). The operative word here is “should”.
This brings us back to Enrico Fermi’s plaintive question: “Where is everybody?” If the galaxy is saturated with advanced civilisations, their heat signatures would be unmistakable, never mind whether we can hear or see them communicating with each other, and we would be knee-deep in self-replicating space probes spreading virally from planet to planet.
This discovery probably means there isn’t anybody more advanced out there.
Canvey Island, Essex, UK
ET snubs broadband
In your article on a new strategy for those involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), David Messerschmitt says that alien civilisations would logically choose to send short, wide-band radio signals rather than prolonged narrow-band ones, to improve both energy efficiency and bandwidth (31 January, p 17).
Yet probably the most important signal so far detected by SETI is the narrow-band “Wow!” signal, picked up in 1977. It came from the direction of Sagittarius and was almost exactly on the hydrogen line, a frequency many thought would be ideal for interstellar transmission. Should we tell the alien civilisation in Sagittarius that they’re being a bit primitive?
Hampton, Middlesex, UK
Flipping the bird
Bernhard Voelkl’s research only found that the birds formed pairs which took turns flying in front, regardless of where they were in the formation originally. How the workload is shared at the front of the V is still an open question.
Flipping the bird
You report that the lead bird in the V-formation of northern bald ibises “often swaps places with the bird behind it” (7 February, p 16). But surely there are two birds behind it, on either side.
My wife and I have a theory that the three birds in the triangle at the head of the V rotate places in three steps, so that each of them has one turn at the front and two spells second in line, one on the left phalanx and then one on the right.
Nottingham, UK
Coders culpable
In your leader on algorithms, you write that the AL in HAL 鈥� the name of the unhinged computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey 鈥� is a contraction of “algorithmic” (7 February, p 5). That may be so, but very shortly after the film was released, someone pointed out that the letters in “HAL” come immediately before those in “IBM” in the alphabet. Which came first, I wonder, the contraction or the alphabetical dislocation? I think I know.
Allendale, Northumberland, UK
Coders culpable
In discussing the impact of computer algorithms, we run the risk of turning them into scapegoats (7 February, p 30). But all algorithms have their origins in human thoughts and decisions.
In principle it’s a simple four-stage process: define a clear end result; decide on inputs and processes to achieve this end; assemble the appropriate computer language commands; and finally, check and debug.
The first two are under our control, and so it should be possible to make sure that they’re working as intended and make common-sense changes where needed. We’ve all seen examples of user-unfriendly programs which must have been written by the unthinking.
Kenley, Surrey, UK
Faith in the evidence
Wilson blames religions for our overstretching of the world’s capacity to sustain life. There’s a more direct link, I’d suggest, with the insatiable greed encouraged by an economy that pillages any resource that will turn a profit.
Most religions have tried to teach the moral vacuity of greed as an approach to life.
Tamworth, Ontario, Canada