Blue eyes: useful and quite alluring too
Michael Le Page reports on a possible genetic advantage for blue eyes: the ability to see better in low light. Meanwhile, your review of Liat Yakir’s book, A Brief History of Love, notes her proposal that blue eyes are evidence for the relative success of sexual selection for this trait, people being “attracted to those who seem special in some way” (17 February, p 28) (10 February, p 9).
I suggest the explanation isn’t either/or. A genetic anomaly that isn’t detrimental and might be advantageous may also be seen by others as a characteristic that is attractive in and of itself, whether because of the appearance it has or the ability it confers.
Time to ban the word 'particle' from physics
It seems to me that the quantum Cheshire Cat problem 鈥� just like the one-particle-at-a-time double-slit paradox 鈥� appears paradoxical only because, however much we are told not to, we still think of elementary particles as like billiard balls. Probably the word “particle” ought to be expunged from all courses on physics (17 February, p 8).
Lentils trump beef-rice any day of the week
James Woodford reports on a new food product incorporating cultured beef cells into rice to get a higher protein version of the latter for a carbon dioxide cost of 6 kilograms per 100 grams of protein. This compares well with beef, but not with lentils, which have a lot more protein and a CO2 cost of 0.84kg/100g of protein. An added bonus is that lentils don’t require a new industrial process to make them and there are already lots of recipes for them (24 February, p 19).
Please donate your dead body to the polar bears (1)
Your article on cannibalism prompted an idea related to the consumption of human remains. Polar bears are starving due to a lack of sea ice. Burials use up land, cremations cause air pollution and cannibalism is frowned upon. Wouldn’t it be better if people agreed to donate their bodies after death to the polar bears for food? This raises some issues, such as the possibility of human diseases being passed to the bears. In which case, cooking might help (17 February, p 32).
Please donate your dead body to the polar bears (2)
If we have been eating each other for “at least a million years”, why are there no recipes?
Algorithms may be culturally polarising
The argument advanced in the book Filterworld, the subject of your review, is that the shift towards algorithmically curated feeds has homogenised culture. I would argue that it may also polarise culture. Take book recommendations of the type “Readers who bought Book X also bought Book Y”. If one reader’s first selection was The Imitation of Christ, while another’s was Mein Kampf, recommendations for future purchases will probably push the two further apart, rather than bring them culturally closer (27 January, p 27).
Despite wrinkles, lunar landing was incredible
Using the word “botched” to describe the landing of Japan’s SLIM lunar probe isn’t appropriate. You say that one of its thrusters failed during the descent. In spite of that, the plucky craft landed in one piece, sent some pics, went to sleep and then reawakened. “Off-nominal” or a similar word would have been a better choice (3 February, p 10).
The landing was historic. The fact that it touched down intact and highly accurately and that the engineers recovered from the accidental thruster failure make it an even greater accomplishment.
Not a spread I'd want to put on my toast
Jenny Chapman perhaps chooses the wrong substance to highlight the safety of processed foods. The “mechanical mixture” made through “the ingenuity of depraved human genius” that she mentions wasn’t margarine as we know it. It was an unhealthy mixture of beef fat and vegetable oil (24 February, p 21).
Thanks for justifying my tree-staking annoyance
Whenever I see newly planted trees staked, I become annoyed. Now I feel even more justified in having this emotion, thanks to James Wong’s piece, which explained how bad the practice is. How do we persuade organisations to stop misguidedly tying young trees to posts? Perhaps we could highlight that it is much cheaper and quicker to not do so and the time saved could be used to plant more freestanding trees (20 January, p 44).
On the pursuit of a car-free future (1)
Pamela Manfield suggests that affordable car transport is essential in rural areas as public transport is limited or non-existent. The term “motonormativity” has been coined to describe the thought processes that overwhelmingly focus on the private car as the prime transport solution. It may not be current political orthodoxy, but greatly enhanced rural public transport is very doable (Letters, 24 February).
On the pursuit of a car-free future (2)
Manfield couldn’t have pointed out more clearly the big flaw in environmental policies: that city-centric thinking dominates.
What working from home has really exposed
On face value, Robin Dunbar’s arguments about the health benefits of friendships favouring on-site working over doing so from home 鈥� whether some or all of the time 鈥� seem plausible. But the personal, environmental and financial gains for the individual, business and society of foregoing daily commutes far outweigh the problems he fears. In fact, I would say the work-from-home change has exposed our pathological dependence on the workplace to fulfil social functions that should come from local communities (10 February, p 21).