Editor's pick: A call to action for reason and against blundering incompetence
You often have cause to bewail the absence of reasoned thinking by governments (as in your Leader of 9 June, p 3). Traditionally, people have accepted this absence with amused tolerance. But there are many reasons why unreason is a bad thing, not the least the intolerance and viciousness arising from bigotry and superstition. In the face of climate change, simple blundering incompetence is enough to take our children and their children to disaster. So: in the spirit of writer émile Zola – j'accuse!
Who? All of us. We have certainly done too little so far, but that can be remedied if we act before it's too late. So, what to do?
Dealing with climate change will need action by both governments and citizens, although it would be culpable folly to wait for governments to take the initiative. As I see it, therefore, the first problem is how to galvanise the general public; there is a wealth of voiceless talent out there. That done, governments will follow.
I ask for 快猫短视频's help. There are, after all, no disinterested commentators in this. You and your contributors are a major point of contact between professional scientists and engineers and, I suspect, a fairly intelligent and concerned section of the public.
The first stage will be to solicit ideas on how to engage the general public, and publishing these. If that goes well, the next step would perhaps be to provide a forum for handling practical ideas as they arise.
As a starter, I would suggest compiling a list of all the things that might be contributing to climate change. I suspect it could be very long. It could be presented as a “family tree”, showing connections between disparate items that might not be readily apparent – ocean life and cloud formation, for example. 快猫短视频, stop debating. Do it – just do it.
AI's lost genius needed the right kind of support (1)
You give an account of the life of artificial intelligence pioneer Walter Pitts, who died in 1969 (2 June, p 40). Several things suggest to me that he may have been someone with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome. The condition was , so that is not surprising. But can we be sure that such scientists today are receiving the support they need to keep contributing?
With appropriate support, Pitts could have continued his work despite the unexpected challenge posed by the frog's eye. Do employers recognise that there are scientists now who struggle to do research, publish papers or present their work because of Asperger's, and do they know how to help? Society might, for a lack of support, be missing out on some incredible breakthroughs.
AI's lost genius needed the right kind of support (2)
Douglas Heaven says EDVAC was the first stored-program computer. It was the first to be ordered, in April 1946, but was not delivered to the University of Pennsylvania until 1949 and only began operating in 1951. The Small-Scale Experimental Machine or “Baby” ran its first program at the University of Manchester, UK, on 21 June 1948.
Pasture-fed animals emit more methane
Susan Johnston says cattle fed on pasture “must have a lower carbon footprint” (Letters, 2 June). In fact, pasture-raised animals emit far more methane than those fed grain, and methane dominates other aspects of their carbon footprint. Weight for weight, it has of carbon dioxide during the 20 years after its release.
Pasture-fed animals as those fed on grain. Beef tens of thousands of kilometres without the transport emissions matching methane in terms of warming.
Commercial or state censorship, a choice
As a strict non-participant in social media, I can observe objectively the effect it has on those who are addicted to it (I use those words advisedly). I read Jonathan Sullivan's review of Margaret Roberts's book on China's system of “porous censorship” (2 June, p 42) from that outsider point of view.
It seems the user must choose between viewing items carefully filtered by state censors and advertisements equally carefully tuned to the individual. The first is to satisfy political imperative, the second to maximise private profit. I am at a loss to decide which is less desirable.
Testing a hypothesis on bowhead whales' songs
Do bowhead whales produce two sounds simultaneously through the manipulation of overtones as practised by throat-singers, John Velonis asks (Letters, 2 June). I compared sonograms I made of normal singing and throat-singing in humans with .
In normal singing, all the harmonics rise and fall in unison. In throat-singing, the sonogram has lines running horizontally across it, representing the constant harmonics of the drone tone. In the whale sonogram there are two unrelated sounds: a series of clicks, which have their own harmonics, and an unrelated rising and falling tone. So it is quite different to throat-singing.
More on Forrester's Ferric Food
David Grimstead mentions “Forrester's Ferric Food”, an early 20th-century tonic which may actually have been good for you, and asks whether it sounds like the leghaemoglobin now used in some veggie burgers (Letters, 26 May). Well, no (unless Forrester was quietly using tonnes of bean roots rather than pressing fruits as advertised).
Legumes are a group of plants – peas, beans, acacias and their relatives – with nodules on their roots to host symbiotic bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and supply it to the plant. As it happens, such plants make leghaemoglobin in their root nodules. It mops up oxygen that would otherwise interfere with this chemistry, allowing the microbes to do their job.
Why not post <i>快猫短视频</i> in a paper pack?
快猫短视频 drops weekly though my letterbox in its own printed plastic bag. You have recently run excellent articles highlighting the problem of recycling this type of plastic (19 May, p 25). So might you consider delivering in a paper envelope? Bath and North East Somerset Council efficiently recycle any paper we leave out for them and I even saw one of their recycling staff enjoying a previously read 快猫短视频.
The editor writes:
• We are reviewing how we distribute the magazine. As the articles point out, the balance of impacts of various paper and plastic options, from tree or oil well to disposal, is complicated.
Give kids hands-on skills to try to be like Newton
Robert Craig describes the problems of including practical work in science teaching in England, and expresses concern that pupils are missing out on an important part of their education (Letters, 19 May).
Isaac Newton was brought up on a manor farm where he would have seen carpenters and blacksmiths at work. As a boy he made model windmills and carved sundials. He later invented the reflecting telescope – not just because his experiments with prisms led him to realise that a reflecting telescope would solve the problem of chromatic aberration, but because he had the skill to make one and present it to the Royal Society.
My grandson in New Zealand was taught basic carpentry in preschool, where at the age of 3 or 4 he used sharp saws, a steel hammer and nails. A teacher told me such classes needed close supervision, but they followed the government recommendation in offering this. This hands-on experience has given my grandson a better chance of emulating Newton.
Childbirth mortality, now and in the Neolithic age
Sam Wong's article “Female bonobos have midwife skills” was heart-warming (26 May, p 12). But I was surprised by the statement that “there is evidence that for most of the history of our species, death in childbirth was less common than it is now”, which contradicts everything else I've read on the subject to date.
The editor writes:
• The paper we referred to () was about a low death rate before the invention of settled agriculture: “now” refers to most of the 10,000 years since then. Over the last century, however, have gone down in most places.
Appreciating a second chance in life
David Holdsworth questions the use of statins on the grounds that it may amount to choosing a probable death from cancer over a heart attack (Letters, 12 May). But taking statins may be more like choosing cancer at 80 over a heart attack at 60.
I had a serious temporarily fatal heart attack at 62, and was resuscitated. I am now looking forward to my 90th birthday next year, and to celebrating my 23-year-old daughter's graduation from university this year.
Correction: We corrected the state that Thos Sumner lives in.
For the record – 23 June 2018
• Several drugs have passed trials and for use in treating dementia by the US Food and Drug Administration, though none are cures (9 June, p 13).
• We meant to say that we are now seeing some very old stars as they were at about 300 million years old, in a galaxy that we see as it was 550 million years after the big bang (26 May, p 21).