Editor's pick: Democracy needs more than a technical fix
Niall Firth mentions voter apathy harming democracy and reports on a “liquid democracy” app (9 September, p 8). But if I'm a person who doesn't vote in elections or referendums, I'm less likely to download an app to help me to vote more. If someone is willing to pay me to download the app and put votes down for one of their interests – on which I have no opinion of my own – the right amount of money could persuade me to make a few taps on my phone screen.
I can't see any way the technology could prevent this. Some would argue that democracy already goes to whoever can afford to pay, but this proposal is certainly no improvement.
Editor's pick: Democracy needs more than a technical fix
One of the main requirements of any voting system is that people have confidence that the votes counted match the votes cast. Regardless of how secure the software is, if people don't understand how it works, it would take only a plausible-sounding rumour of hacking to spread doubt.
Sweet, sweet poison that is perfectly slow
I congratulate Tiffany O'Callaghan for keeping the warning about the hazards of sugar alive and in our faces (9 September, p 42). It's all too easy to say, “Oh, I know all that. One jelly bean won't hurt.” The undeniable science now is that it will hurt.
Sucrose is the perfect slow poison – a 40-year poison. Not even Hercule Poirot could have connected the dots, the effect being so delayed. But sucrose is toxic; make no mistake. Before 1874, when the UK abolished a tax on sugar and was suddenly flooded with it, myocardial infarction was extremely rare in the literature. By 1900, we see the first myocardial infarction ever recorded. There was no name for type 2 diabetes before 1900 because it was so rare as to be considered a medical curiosity. By the early 20th century, there were over 30 million cases in sugar-rich countries. Nowadays, we don't have to wait 40 years to see sucrose's effects: childhood obesity is pandemic.
Sweet, sweet poison that is perfectly slow
The interesting interview with Robert Lustig reminds me of John Yudkin's book , first published in 1972 to amusement and some derision from many experts, particularly those working in food-related industries. If we had been more open-minded back then, Yudkin's warnings about sugar might have reduced the problems.
As scientists, we ought to avoid reinventing the wheel quite so frequently. But students are increasingly taught that there is no point in reading material that is more than 10 years old.
First class post
A problem for those living with chronic pain: can't be seen on the face as they're used to it
Elizabeth Turp about software rating the pain people are in from their faces and catching out fakers (9 September, p 12)
The safest childbirth and the healthiest babies
Clare Wilson describes the Royal College of Midwives removing such advice to members as “wait and see – let natural physiology take its own time” as “back-pedalling” (19 August, p 23). As I understand it, the RCM changed from a “Campaign for Normal Birth” to a “Campaign for Better Births” because it wanted to campaign for improved care for the small proportion of expectant mothers for whom medicalised birth is indicated, as well as for the majority, for whom physiological birth is the preferred outcome. Referring to physiological birth as “normal” may unfortunately have made women who give birth with medical assistance feel that doing so was in some way “abnormal”, when that isn't the case.
The latest from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommend that for low-risk, multiparous women, the first choice of birthplace should be the home or a midwife-led unit.
For women who are likely to give birth easily, being in a major obstetric unit may result in interventions that make their birth less straightforward. There is no reason why, if we staff and fund such units properly, this should be the case.
The safest childbirth and the healthiest babies
Wilson refers to infant deaths at the Morecambe Bay health trust in north-west England. The investigation into these wasn't a formal inquiry. It reported that over-prioritising natural childbirth was one of five elements of dysfunctionality that contributed to these deaths. The others were: a lack of effective teamwork; skills and practice that had “drifted”; a failure to recognise or admit incidents; and deficient and self-justificatory investigation with failure to learn. It made no attempt to apportion adverse outcomes to individual elements of dysfunctionality.
These are not the infinite paradoxes you seek
Stuart Clark writes that set theory has never managed to deal with contradictions such as the fact that sets of whole numbers that have apparently different sizes can both, on close inspection, be infinite (26 August, p 39). Many people find it counterintuitive or even paradoxical that infinite sets can be paired off with “proper subsets” of themselves – as subsets that are not equal to the full set. It even led the polymath Galileo Galilei, in his 1638 work , to the erroneous conclusion that “we cannot speak of infinite quantities as being the one greater or less than or equal to another”.
There is no contradiction here. Modern set theory deals quite easily with both Galileo's paradox and the Hilbert Hotel that Clark mentions. Though if the currently (widely) accepted axioms of set theory (the so-called plus the ) are themselves inconsistent, all bets are off.
Let's all write numbers the right way round
Gilbert Ramsay remarks that numbers are written from left to right in Arabic, which surprises him given that Arabic text runs right to left (Letters, 9 September). But I suggest that numbers are written from right to left in both Arabic and Western scripts – logically for those using Arabic, less so for Westerners. Reading from the right, you immediately know what value each digit represents. Reading from the left, you don't know if the first digit is units, tens, hundreds, thousands or millions until you reach the end.
The advantages of life alongside a food fad
Anthony Warner is right to criticise food fads (5 August, p 24). But one enormous benefit has come from the gluten-free craze.
I have coeliac disease. In my case, a single crumb of gluten-containing food causes symptoms ranging from debilitating to almost deadly. Gluten can hide in innumerable and unlikely foods.
It is improbable that the food industry would have started adding gluten allergy warnings to packaging or begun producing gluten-free foods solely for those of us with the genuine condition. But because of the fad, it is now much safer for me to purchase foods and there is a far greater variety available. Thank you, hypochondriacs!
Two views on culture stabilising gender
Gina Rippon gives a fascinating perspective on gender differences in behavioural traits, with insights from studies in both humans and other species (2 September, p 24). She describes recent work that can be modelled in terms of biology being the source of differences between sexes in average behavioural traits, and environment stabilising these differences.
I find this a welcome balance to an article by Lara Williams arguing against biological determinism (19 August, p 22). Those of a conservative mindset may regard the stabilising effect of human culture on gender differences as a force for good. Liberals will see it as unfairly limiting opportunities for both women and men. But the main influence on our attitude to gender stereotyping is the age and society in which we live.
My experience of 'menopause' as a man
A sidebar to Jessica Hamzelou's article on the menopause queried whether men have an equivalent (2 September, p 36). Many men who undergo treatment for prostate cancer have hormone therapy that quickly reduces their testosterone to extremely low levels. As my oncologist said to me, “It'll be like having a menopause.”
She wasn't joking: from hot flushes, through mood swings to emotional fragility, I had a plethora of menopausal symptoms. Had I had to continue this treatment for longer, I would have been at risk of osteoporosis. The andropause may or may not exist, but for those men whose prostate cancer is treated this way, the menopause is a reality. It did, however, get me in touch with my feminine side.
Steam had a go on London's streets too
Mick Hamer recalls competition between electric and petrol-driven buses in London early last century (9 September, p 35). He mentions only in passing that this was a three-way race. Between 1907 and 1912, the Metropolitan Steam Omnibus Company ran 63 Darracq-Serpollet steam buses. In 1908, the London General Omnibus Company had 35 steam buses and the following year Thomas Clarkson founded the National Steam Car Company here in Chelmsford, which by 1914 had 184 in London.
Despite them being quiet, efficient and economical, the last steam bus was withdrawn in November 1919, and our roads have since been dominated by the internal combustion engine.
For the record
• Sticky problem: Earth's mantle layer flows slowly but is solid (2 September, p 40).
• North Korea also in 1998 (2 September, p 4).