Editor's pick: We will need carbon capture in any case
Chris deSilva is right to be cautious about carbon capture and storage, or CCS (Letters, 2 March). It will be expensive, especially when used to capture carbon from the air, and we will need to ensure the long-term integrity of underground storage. But what is the alternative? Some chemical processes, notably cement production, release carbon dioxide. We need CCS to capture it.
All the scenarios that keep the temperature rise below 1.5°C, and most of those staying below 2°C, essentially require us to remove CO2 from the air. We need CCS for that.
If we continue generating electricity by burning gas – a near certainty globally – we need CCS to minimise the impact. Of course we should minimise these needs by sharply increasing our ambition for emissions reduction: more renewables, more electrification, less waste and so on. It just won't be enough. So we have to make CCS work. We ought to be building the first CO2 transport and storage systems now and spending more on carbon capture research and development.
What are the differences between our brains? (1)
Gina Rippon’s article on the myth of male and female brains is long overdue and a very balanced reassessment of bias in the science of human brains (2 March, p 28). But the omission of the role of hormones in neurological processing is glaring. And Rippon didn’t mention the fact that men commit the majority of sexual, violent and animal-abuse crimes, independent of culture or history. There may be something of culture in this, but the degree of the difference indicates that it shouldn’t be brushed aside.
What are the differences between our brains? (2)
There is much to welcome in Rippon’s article. However, a couple of caveats seem necessary. There is little evolutionary reason to expect genetically influenced sex differences in such things as skills at reading, writing, mathematics and computer programming, because these cultural inventions are very recent in evolutionary terms.
In contrast, there is good reason to expect average sex differences in such things as aggression; and on average males have higher testosterone levels than women. Could these be environmentally caused? From evolutionary considerations, one might expect these differences to be in part genetically influenced.
Any differences in behaviour under given external conditions will depend on brain and muscle differences, otherwise from where do they spring? This is equally true whether one sees the brain differences arising from genetics or from plasticity that reflects sociocultural factors. Whether these differences are evident in brains that are examined in a scanner is an empirical question. They might appear only when the brain is stimulated by a trigger for desire or aggression, say.
First class post 鈥� 23 March 2019
I had vaccines as a teenager. I started dressing in black and writing really dark poetry …
Alice met the Master the arguments of those who attribute autism to vaccines, despite research (9 March, p 6)
Think hard before opting for nuclear power (1)
I agree with David Titley that it would be unwise for the US, or any government, to rule out the use of any form of low-carbon energy generation we already have available, including nuclear power (2 March, p 24). The German government's switch-off of its nuclear plants was premature and led to increased coal burning. Decisions on whether to continue using any plant must be based on the cost of maintaining it in a safe and efficient state and the cost of disposing of the waste generated. This should include both financial and environmental costs.
As for building new nuclear plants, the choice of technology and full lifetime cost need to be carefully considered. It seems to take about 30 years to get a new plant supplying the grid, at least in the UK. We can't wait that long, and this risks enormous amounts of taxpayer money to underwrite the enterprise. Invest that money in molten metal energy storage or sodium-sulphur batteries, and add renewables – which can be built piecemeal and start having positive impacts immediately.
Think hard before opting for nuclear power (2)
Titley says nuclear electricity generation should be considered. But the costs of decommissioning power stations and dealing with waste are immense, and there is no known safe long-term solution for the disposal of nuclear waste. Back-up systems for keeping nuclear cores safe can fail in the event of damage to the reactor, as was shown when a tsunami hit Japan in 2011. Nuclear power is unsafe and, if investment is put into safe renewables, unnecessary.
What is the 'gearing ratio' of burning petrol?
Keep up the good work with your coverage of climate change, for example your report describing what a world warmed by 1.5°C looks like (19 January, p 34).
That prompts me to wonder: how much more heat does burning a kilogram of petrol generate later via the greenhouse effect than via its combustion? This figure resembles the “gearing ratio” of debt to capital used in finance. I recall hearing a value of 100,000 times as much at the first event. Getting it nailed down would bring home how very much damage we do.
Conditions on benefits harm employers too
Joshua Howgego reports how unemployed people in Finland who received a universal basic income perceived their health and stress levels to be improved (16 February, p 10).
It isn't only unemployed people who are stressed when they must prove they are looking for a job to receive unemployment benefit. Employers sometimes receive over a thousand applications for a vacancy. Many of these are made only to comply with benefit office demands. Trawling through them takes time and therefore money. Companies that don't have a firm policy on looking at every application might consider only the first 40 and bin the rest.
Perhaps someone could develop an artificial intelligence system capable of applying for jobs, and another that binned them at the employer's end. The machines would be doing useful work in allowing unemployed people to get on with running their lives and seeking training and education.
Green campsite seeks a scientist in residence
I appeal for any young or experienced scientist to consider applying for the role of Green & Away's scientist in residence. Our charity runs the leading outdoor environmental venue in the UK, near Worcester.
We welcome applications from scientists in any discipline, including ecology, economics, chemistry, physics, biology, anthropology, astronomy, psychology or sociology.
The scientist in residence will be able to develop a theory and experiment on our 80-hectare farm in cooperation with our interns and volunteers, who build our environmental village between June and August.
This is the first time we have offered the role, so the successful applicant will be joining a groundbreaking project. For more information, see .
Fake news has existed for a long time
You observe that researchers are struggling to find out how people are influenced by disinformation (Leader, 23 February). I would add to this nice piece that fake news is not an internet phenomenon. It has always used whatever medium is available. You have only to pick up a copy of some newspapers to realise that.
Finger cutting as sign of mourning in New Guinea
I lived in the Indonesian province of Papua on the island of New Guinea for two years in the 1990s. In Jayapura, I saw Dani women from the Baliem Valley who had amputated fingers in mourning for relatives. So it is interesting to read Margaret McGovern's note on the same practice in parts of Canada (Letters, 23 February).
In contrast, there are many examples of Aboriginal hand spray cave art in Australia but none that I have seen feature incomplete fingers.
Neanderthals lived where the warmth is
Laura Spinney reports Matt Pope's view on where to look for Neanderthal habitation: a third of the way up a slope with a good vista and solid rock behind (9 February, p 28). Studying , we found “thermal belts” in exactly these places on spurs of high ground, with higher temperatures and lower humidity than adjacent zones. They require clear skies.
These belts can be 7°C or more warmer than neighbouring ground. If the sites were indeed “optimised” for this, that could lead us to make interesting inferences about Neanderthals' understanding of their environments.
Ban the wearing of ties to fix air-con problems
Scott McNeil notes that people from different places want open plan offices to have different temperatures (Letters, 2 March). There is a gender difference too: women who want or are required to dress fashionably may wear less clothing than men in suits.
The moral suasion on men to wear suits and ties results in clothing that is too cold for winter and too hot for summer. We could save a lot on air conditioning and heating costs by banning ties from offices, or maybe have an environmental tie tax, easily enforceable by unannounced visits from the tie tax inspectors.
For the record 鈥� 23 March 2019
鈥� Riverrun: going eastward we find the Thames, Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine rivers (9 March, p 30).
鈥� The substance we should cautiously welcome as a treatment for depression is esketamine, one of the mirror-image molecules that make up ketamine (16 March, p 24).