Let's hear it for introverts, some of history's greats
As a life-long introvert, I was taken aback by the advice in the book Me, But Better, which was reviewed in your pages. Forcing yourself to conform to perceived societal expectations around sociability is a recipe for disaster in the long term. Accepting yourself, on the other hand, fosters self-compassion that brings long-term happiness and, ironically, the change that many of us introverts desire (22 March, p 27).
I would like to point the interested reader to Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, by Susan Cain. A gift from my university supervisor, that book helped me to understand and accept myself 鈥� and taught me that many of society’s most celebrated figures, including Albert Einstein and Rosa Parks, were introverts.
Net carbon by banning fishing globally
If researcher Oswald Schmitz is correct about fish storing such large amounts of carbon, then we need to stop commercial fishing immediately. We know that world stocks of larger species have dipped to of what they were before industrial fishing took over. We could tackle the problem of excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere simply by banning commercial fishing (29 March, p 39).
Little natural landscape left, even in countryside
I loved Menno Schilthuizen’s take on the (relatively) new urban natural history discoveries to be made. Unfortunately, he falls into the trap of thinking that only urbanites are living in landscapes that are “completely different from natural habitats”. The rural landscapes of Europe (especially the UK), North America and many other places are artificial too, and also almost exclusively created by Homo sapiens ().
A flush-free way to reuse our own waste
Graham Lawton’s article on the recovery of useful chemicals from sewage was excellent. I have long advocated for mainstream use of 鈥� which can make use of our waste in situ 鈥� so it is helpful to put a value on the commodities we flush away (29 March, p 22).
Extracting chemicals at the source using composting toilets could cut water-treatment costs and domestic water use, making us more resilient to drought, as well as preventing sewage spills into rivers and flood water. Commodify the resources in sewage and you also potentially create emissions from their transport, which is a really strong argument to localise the process of dealing with them.
Maybe dementia reduction had other factors at play
There is an alternative explanation other than extra education for the reduced incidence of dementia in UK adults born four years after the cut-off birth date for the 1972 increase in the school-leaving age, from 15 to 16, compared with those born four years prior (15 March, p 14).
The older cohort were born in 1952 and the younger cohort in 1960. Post-war austerity probably affected the health of the older group (and their mothers during conception and pregnancy) because of poor nutrition and housing. Rationing in the UK didn’t totally end until 1954, and the Clean Air Act in 1956 will also have benefited the younger group. These factors could also help account for the higher socioeconomic status of the 1960 group, which tends to correlate with better overall health.
We give cows their own medicine cabinet
I read with interest your interview with Jaap de Roode on self-medication in animals. My research focuses on domestic livestock self-medicating against gut parasites using medicinal plants. De Roode mentions that farm animals lack a varied diet for better health. At Lincoln University’s Integral Health Dairy Farm in New Zealand, we introduced woodland strips with herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, allowing animals to feed on aromatic plants for medication (22 March, p 34).
Uncertainty in science is a great source of joy
Your review of Adam Kucharski’s book Proof refers to “truth” and “truth-seeking” in science. I don’t know if Kucharski’s book uses these terms much, but perhaps it should be added that indisputable truth isn’t available in science, and that seeking evidence for something is less important than seeking evidence against it. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in Isaac Newton’s theories of motion and gravitation being refuted from the beginning by anomalies in Mercury’s orbit (22 March, p 26).
Once you get used to it, the perpetual uncertainty of science can be a great source of joy. There is no dead end; the journey is perpetual.
Has population really been underestimated?
In their study on world population, the researchers used data from dam projects as the basis for their assertion that rural populations had been significantly underestimated. Could there be another explanation for the apparent discrepancies(29 March, p 17)?
No doubt in many cases, people living in the area to be flooded were offered compensation. This could encourage false claims ranging from exaggeration and embellishment to outright fraud.
An unfortunate case of nominative determinism
Reading “A wobbly start to radio astronomy on the moon” got me wondering: did NASA, in a spectacular case of nominative determinism, seal the lander’s fate by naming the telescope mounted on it ROLSES-1? Perhaps someone should warn the agency not to use the name “Cosmic Radiation and Associated Solar Heating Interstellar Energy Sensor” (CRASHIES) for anything (29 March, p 10).
For the record
Andreas Hejnol is at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany (5 April, p 13).