Maths is a marvel full of universal truths
I share Michael Brooks’s concerns about low levels of numeracy and high levels of “maths anxiety” (27 November 2021, p 25). But I don’t think the solution simply lies in a “more utilitarian approach” to the subject. This would risk taking the wonder and imagination out of maths, which is what inspires people to keep studying it and pushing back the frontiers of our understanding.
The value of maths to society is clear. Not only have discoveries in it led, for centuries, to applications and achievements in every area of science and technology, but it is also an inherently valuable part of our shared human experience. What’s more, its insights and discoveries don’t just apply through time, but through space too. The same maths truths apply on the other side of the universe, just as they do on Earth.
Ensuring that the pipeline of maths talent remains healthy is why the London Mathematical Society set up the . This seeks to ensure that university maths departments get the funding they need and society gets the maths graduates necessary to flourish 鈥� and to help the next generation of learners avoid maths anxiety.
Asking whether maths belongs with the sciences or humanities may be a provocative and fun diversion, but the subject faces serious challenges around funding and perception. Our campaign exists to make the case for maths. We would welcome Brooks as a supporter.
Could we beat omicron variant at its own game?
When a new coronavirus variant arrives and is highly infectious, it seems to wipe out older varieties (11 December 2021, p 7). Why couldn’t we engineer a variety that is very transmissible but not deadly? Perhaps this would be better than vaccination.
We're missing a trick for making shipping green
Owen Mooney,Hamilton, New Zealand
In her look at decarbonising shipping, Nicola Jones reviews multiple propulsion options for commercial vessels, but doesn’t include nuclear power (27 November 2021, p 45).
This is both the most green and most economical option for shipping propulsion. There are currently over 160 ships powered by more than 200 small reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association. Fear of nuclear power is stifling the use of an incredibly effective and carbon-free energy source. We need to use it where possible for the sake of the planet.
Fears for our future in the metaverse (1)
Annalee Newitz hopes the allegedly forthcoming metaverse won’t reduce humanity to “gibbering crash-heads” (27 November 2021, p 26). I assume Newitz doesn’t know anyone who has been swept up into the social media-induced epidemic of conspiracy theory disinformation. I do, and it seems to me that we are already halfway there.
Fears for our future in the metaverse (2)
Excellent analysis by Newitz, one that applies just as well to science in general. If something is capable of misuse, then it surely will be so used. Beware the MetaZuckerFaceBerg 鈥� what you see is merely its innocuous-looking tip.
Put all that captured carbon to good use
Trevor Randall advocates for carbon capture and storage (Letters, 27 November 2021). I agree with the first part (capture), but not the second.
Storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide underground is a recipe for a future environmental disaster. What’s more, this is a valuable resource that should be used. We should be bubbling CO2 into vast algal fermenters, or piping it into sealed greenhouses, to produce biofuel.
This way, we can power existing motor vehicles, planes and ships without trashing the planet to extract the scarce minerals needed for wind and solar farms and for electric vehicles.
More views on the role of kindness in human story
Kate Ravilious makes a powerful case that it was the benevolence and social skills of Homo sapiens that ensured its survival when other hominins were wiped out by environmental changes 40,000 to 50,000 years ago (27 November 2021, p 38).
This may well be part of the story, but it rather ignores the evidence from recorded and recent history of the genocidal behaviour of H. sapiens to “different” members of its own species, let alone to other hominins. This dual nature 鈥� caring and keen for contact with those perceived to be “us”, with the potential for genocide against those perceived as outsiders 鈥� has plagued our history and exercised the founders of religions and populist leaders who have sought to either mitigate or exploit it.
It is sadly still with us. The answer to our survival may be that our social and cooperative skills, combined with an exceptional potential for viciousness, enabled us to be more effective both at holding on and at wiping others out.
Philippe Max Rouja, Southampton, Bermuda
It warms my heart to see the idea of kindness as a driving force in the development of our species, Homo sapiens, becoming mainstream. There have been many dedicated anthropologists who have gathered information about other cultures that points towards this kind of hypothesis. They argued that social institutions emerged not as control mechanisms for humanity’s basest nature, but were fundamentally based on a capacity for caring and kindness.
We're pretty sure a dawn raid won't be triggered
Have any readers dared to buy How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm, whom you interviewed a couple of weeks ago? My finger was hovering over the checkout button when I realised that I live near GCHQ, the communications monitoring service for the UK’s intelligence agencies (30 October 2021, p 47). Not wanting the 5am knock on the door, I chickened out.