Editor's pick: A cool proposal to fund an ice giant mission
Leah Crane informs us that if we want to send probes to Uranus and Neptune, we had best get a wriggle on to make the next launch window in the late 2020s and early 2030s (28 July, p 40). If we miss this opportunity, we have to wait until 2050 to get close-up images and data from these far-flung icy orbs.
As Crane notes, this would require a quick decision on funding if such probes are to be designed, built and launched in time. How can we best make the case for the cash? Well, there is nothing like a snappy brand name for a project. Usually these seem to be cute and appropriate acronyms to sell a mission concept.
In 2027, we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the death of who – among many other achievements – proposed the nebula hypothesis of the origins of the planets. This occasion happens to fall during the launch window. Let's call the spacecraft the Ice Giants Laplace Orbiting Observatories.
Ah! IGLOO – what member of Congress could resist funding that?
When and where is an infection a bad thing? (1)
Stephanie Woodcock responds to your review of Edward Bullmore's The Inflamed Mind by suggesting we should consider the role of infection when looking at the link between inflammation and depression (Letters, 28 July). This prompted me to consider the natural state for humans.
Have we adapted to be most healthy when dealing with a typical background of non-life-threatening infections? Perhaps an infection-free body would compromise our health in ways we can't predict.
It is clear that there are many interrelated areas where better knowledge could help: the make-up and function of our microbiome; which bacteria are friends and which foes; the role of the enteric nervous system in the gut and serotonin; the relationship between these things and anxiety and between anxiety and depression, exercise and lifestyle; other environmental and social factors; the immune system… and so it goes on.
I wonder how much an implicit assumption that any and all infections are bad might colour infection-related research.
When and where is an infection a bad thing? (2)
Woodcock asks for consideration of infection, as well as mental adversity, causing inflammation leading to depression. Bullmore does contend that underlying inflammatory physical conditions could trigger some depression. He suspects too many practitioners look only at psychological stress, rather than a directly physical cause for depression. So he does include infection as a cause of inflammation and depression.
First class post 鈥� 25 August 2018
Autism does give some of us amazing abilities but for most autistic folk it is debilitating
Kevin that autism can bring extra abilities 鈥� and Anna Remington is finding out why (14 July, p 32).
Mixed messages about biodiversity can do harm
Graham Lawton rightly sets about unpicking some assertions about loss of biodiversity (28 July, p 28). But he bases the discussion on whether biodiversity really is in a crisis largely on extinction rates and on whether planetary boundaries have been exceeded.
He pays little attention to the loss and degradation of natural habitat. Only by sustaining large areas of habitat will saving a range of species be possible.
Current threats 鈥� population growth, illegal wildlife trade and uncontrolled conversion of natural areas 鈥� are challenging. If biodiversity loss is to be halted, change is desperately needed.
It is not about saving the odd endangered species from the brink. It requires a dramatic shift from traditional to sustainable investments, better land use planning, the protection of large landscapes and intact habitats, and better management of natural resources. There are challenging conversations to be had about how we realistically achieve this without affecting the rights of others.
Stories of conservation successes are welcome, but questioning whether there are enough data to assess the current state of biodiversity can engender complacency.
It also risks sowing the seeds of doubt and preventing the loss of biodiversity becoming a burning issue for governments and the private sector.
Bread was a treat in what is now Australia long ago
You report Amaia Arranz-Otaegui's discovery of bread crumbs that predate farming by a few millennia at Shubayqa in Jordan (21 July, p 6). You find it curious that bread doesn't seem to have become a staple food in the Stone Age.
Aboriginal Australian people were harvesting grass seeds, native rice and “seeds”, for, probably, tens of thousands of years before this.
It is unsurprising that this wasn't a staple food in a hunter-gatherer society. Making it would require a large surplus of a seasonal resource and storage facilities – thus a settled existence. In some places, Aboriginal people did live in towns, notably in western Victoria, where eels were farmed, smoked and traded, and people lived in stone-walled huts.
In more arid areas settling down wasn't an attractive option and in the tropics there was no need.
Can mobile phone masts back up GPS satellites?
Stephen Battersby discusses proposals to prevent or detect spoofing of GPS signals (7 July, p 32). What about using mobile phone cell sites? Of course they are only of use on land, but they are numerous and fixed.
A system using them would be very difficult to effectively spoof as it would be necessary to convincingly spoof all the cell sites around the area you wanted to affect. One signal indicating a position that didn't fit in with the others from the same area would stand out as obviously wrong.
Beyond belief and also beyond cash measures (1)
I was intrigued by Gregory Paul’s discussion of the relationship between religion and economic development (28 July, p 24). But economics can be used to measure well-being up to a relatively low level of income (28 July 2012, p 40) As countries or communities become more unequal in wealth distribution, measures of well-being such as health decline (24 October 2015, p 26).
Anecdotally, caring and mutual support decline as wealth increases, possibly because they are no longer seen as necessary or because we become more isolated and less aware of the needs of others. Money is nothing more than a lubricant facilitating complex exchange systems not possible with barter.
Beyond belief and also beyond cash measures (2)
Paul asks why non-theistic countries are more successful. But how should we measure “success”? Finland, for example, is ranked top in the but 42nd by gross domestic product. The US is ranked top by GDP but only 18th for happiness.
Religions value compassion, which promotes happiness. In contrast, economic success comes through valuing money, which promotes competition, a source of unhappiness.
Resist the stinky call of the metropolis!
You mention the somewhat toxic site you have chosen for your head office (Leader, 21 July). You say that the congestion and air pollution is replicated across the country. It's quite nice where I am.
You use authors from all over the world, so why insist on being in London, the dirtiest part of the UK? You might also consider holding your 快猫短视频 Live events at a central location – London is not central, unless you live there.
The true odds of getting to a very advanced age
Tom Kirkwood points out that 105 is the first age at which the probability of reaching the next birthday falls below 50 per cent and illustrates the odds of living beyond this to the record age of 122 by asking who has ever tossed 17 heads in a row (7 July, p 24). This is a satisfactory rough-and-ready estimate, but it is far less likely than that, because each year the chance of reaching the next birthday drops dramatically.
A call for clarity in reporting visual acuity
Catherine de Lange reports a virtual reality headset improving users' vision “to 20/30, which is pretty close to 20/20 vision” (4 August, p 4). In the UK, doctors and opticians now use a metric measure of visual acuity: “6/9 vision” means being able to read at 6 metres what one should, nominally, be able to read at 9 metres; “20/30” is the equivalent when distances are measured in feet.
Several binds that follow from wearing ties (1)
Brian Horton mentions doctors' ties carrying germs (Letters, 28 July). When I was a medical student in the 1950s, I noticed that gastroenterologists, obstetricians and gynaecologists tended to wear bow ties rather than knotted ties to protect themselves, rather than the patient.
Several binds that follow from wearing ties (2)
Someone say it: we all know what a tie is. Just look at it sticking up from the top of trousers with a knot on the end. It says “I have a penis so I get to give the orders.” I find it laughable that the people who wear them can't see that this is what they're saying. If you point it out they take it very badly.
For the record 鈥� 25 August 2018
鈥� Cold fact: the amount of carbon dioxide needed to make a Martian atmosphere is about a million cubes of dry ice each 1 kilometre across (4 August, p 6).
鈥� Alfred Russel Wallace was racked by yellow fever during his South American expedition of 1848鈥�1852 and in the Malay archipelago in 1854-1862 (28 July, p 44).