Is a diet of microgreens really worth the effort?
Microgreens may have a high density of nutrients and vitamins, but does the body absorb them all? Maybe the extras end up in the waste stream. It would be good to know how their absorption compares with that of “normal” diced raw carrots, for instance (14 October, p 36).
Rearing carnivores for meat is senseless
On the subject of sea-farmed salmon, why do we farm carnivorous fish when, to produce 1 kilogram of them, we require a much greater weight of wild-caught fish? There is really no excuse, either environmental or economic, for doing so (21 October, p 20).
On the rise of the new forms of AI
Further to Alex Wilkins’s piece on how large language models (LLMs) are similar to codec compression algorithms like MP3: despite the knowledge that MP3 lowered audio quality, users flocked to it, resulting in the music streaming industry of today. Convenience trumped quality. It seems the same thing will happen with LLMs (7 October, p 20).
Science isn't just for the gifted few
The comment from a local politician that most politicians are “people persons” and aren’t versed in science is both condemnatory and horrifying. Science isn’t some mystic process restricted to a gifted few. It ultimately comes down to rational, logical thought where decisions are based on real information, not gut feelings. If it is really the case that many politicians out there aren’t aware of this, it is no wonder we are in our present dystopian state (Letters, 14 October).
Dancing fruit and nuts have a long history
Your article reports research about nuts and raisins “dancing” in carbonated liquids. I taught school students to observe this phenomenon in the 1980s 鈥� I believe I found the experiment in the publications of the Nuffield Science Project (7 October, p 17).
Your account of what happens doesn’t mention the fact that when the raisins reach the liquid’s surface and the bubbles on top of them pop, the raisins often turn over, shedding bubbles that had been clinging to their underneath, before they sink.
There is only one substance that falls up (1)
The article “Antimatter definitely doesn’t fall up, physicists confirm” brings to mind the element upsidaisium from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons (7 October, p 16).
There is only one substance that falls up (2)
The only substance that falls up is upsidaisium, a metal found only in the floating Mount Flatten. The ill-intentioned Mr Big assigned his top agents to steal Mount Flatten. Happily, Rocky and Bullwinkle were able to protect the world’s upsidaisium supply.
I agree, non-native plants can be a boon
James Wong casts his habitual common sense on the issue of native and non-native garden plants. Yes, “alien” plants can be a disaster in unique ecosystems like the South African fynbos, but the UK’s sparse flora has only 1625 native species compared with 1798 aliens established as unthreatening wildflowers (30 September, p 44).
Many of these are actually northern European species that would be natives if the English Channel hadn’t halted their migration.
While many butterflies rely on native plants as caterpillars, pollinating insects love most horticultural plants that bloom prolifically and for long periods. Our native flora will be disrupted by now-inevitable climate change, and our long-term conservation strategy must embrace new, better-adapted species and communities.
Why the Wood Age won't quite cut it
The story “Earliest evidence of wood buildings” ends by saying “we might need to rethink our labelling of the Stone Age”, that it was maybe “more of a wood age” (30 September, p 14).
My understanding is that the various ages (Stone, Bronze and Iron) were named for the most common material used for knives. It is unlikely that those who had the stone tools necessary for woodworking would have been using wooden knives, so I don’t think we will soon be referring to this period as the Wood Age, even if people of the time built extensively with wood.
Let's keep an open mind on alien communication
I was a bit shocked to read Raymond Hickey’s dismissal of the circle-writing by aliens that visit Earth in the movie Arrival. He says no animal “would use such a short-supply resource as their ink for primary communication”. Why assume that it was even their own ink? Or maybe their own ink isn’t, for them, a “short-supply resource” 鈥� like how urine, used for communication by many animals, isn’t a scarce resource?
If we are to think usefully about talking to aliens, open-mindedness and imagination are essential (30 September, p 29).
What to call the opening age of the Anthropocene
As discussions about a possible Anthropocene Epoch continue, it occurs to me that these seem to ignore the fact that we may need to name a new geological “age” too. The Holocene has three: Greenlandian, Northgrippian and Meghalayan (Letters, 30 September).
One proposal is that the Anthropocene began in around 1750, which is the usually accepted date for the start of the industrial revolution, and marks a rapid rise in the production of goods primarily for profit rather than for necessity.
It that, on this basis, the first age of the Anthropocene Epoch should be known as the Capitalinian.