Letters archive

From 15 June, p 19 It is amazing that there are still doubts about whether human newborns are conscious and capable of experiencing pain. Newborn foals and calves are born with their eyes open and are capable of walking almost immediately after birth. I have been at the birth of several spectacled flying foxes, amazing …

I can't believe that scientists are conducting experiments to find out what every parent has known since the dawn of humanity, the moment they look in their baby's eyes just seconds after it takes its first breath: there is someone there. An ignorant, inexperienced, inarticulate someone, to be sure, but a person ready to be …

From Leader, 15 June Much of the backlash against "easy" weight loss via Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs comes from culturally entrenched moralising, people leaping to judge others as "lazy" or "greedy" and not deserving to lose weight if they don't "put in the work". The fact that these drugs are so effective shows that, …

From 8 June, p 15 So sulphur dioxide emissions from ships burning heavy marine fuel cooled Earth by brightening ocean clouds, but declines in such pollution since 2020 have resulted in warming. This unplanned experiment in geoengineering indicates that we should now fund tests of marine cloud brightening using ships to spray seawater into clouds …

From 25 May, p 36 Having read your piece about how to measure biodiversity, it is worth remembering that although the species concept is immensely useful, it does have its limits. This is because species descriptions, in order to be practical, have to encompass a lot of variation between individuals, both in their outward characteristics …

From 22 June, p 16 I was heartened to read of another organism that has taken to consuming one of our throwaway polymers. To be fair, given the high energy density of plastics, it isn't surprising that microbes are evolving to feed on them. I agree with Annika Vaksmaa about the dangers of introducing this …

From 22 June, p 40 I see with some alarm that you describe the New Horizons spacecraft as "plucky" – a term usually defined as having courage in the face of adversity. This seems to imply that the probe has acquired intelligence, can understand what it is doing and experiences human emotions. This isn't far …

From 15 June, p 28 I take issue with claims that scientists are fairly unanimous that drinking alcohol in moderation is healthy. While I agree that this is preferable to excessive drinking, there is no amount of alcohol consumption that doesn't affect health. In fact, the World Health Organization published a statement on this in …

From Letters, 22 June There is some misunderstanding about interference in the double-slit experiment. The electron doesn't interfere with the next electron, but with itself.

From Letters, 22 June Robin Stonor asks why not throw rubbish in a volcano. On contact with hot lava, many materials would vaporise, causing explosions. Due to the lack of oxygen, plastics and organic materials would decompose, not burn – this would produce flammable and toxic gases, including greenhouse gases.

In salt sensitivity, each extra gram of sodium per day raises blood pressure by an average of 2.1 mmHg ( 8 June, p 32 ). A Kuiper belt object in a 2:3 resonance with Neptune completes two orbits of the sun for every three orbits the planet makes ( 22 June, p 40 ).