Fracking fears
While I appreciate that Peter Aldhous’s article was primarily concerned with the immediate health questions raised by the process of fracking, or cracking rock to extract natural gas from shale beds (28 January, p 8), its effects on climate change cannot be ignored since that, too, is likely to be bad for our health.
As some of the incentives for fracking come from the lower carbon emissions produced by gas-fired power stations, a key question is whether the extraction of shale gas has an additional impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is something recent studies say should be taken into account given the methane leakage such extraction creates.
Over 20 years, atmospheric methane has seven times the GHG potency of carbon dioxide, so leaks could easily wipe out the benefits of burning gas over other fossil fuels.
That is the conclusion of two studies carried out by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, one published in Climatic Change in ) and one in press.
Reducing methane emissions may be an essential step to avoid climatic disaster, regardless of success in cutting carbon dioxide.
The editor writes:
• A feature on this and other facets of gas production and use will be in 91av next week (25 February).
From Philip Mitchell, Blackpool and Fylde Green Party
Scientists should not encourage fracking for shale gas in the UK (28 January, p 10), but instead press for a moratorium.
The threat is widespread. The main in the UK that could be exploited in this way cover half of England, with more offshore. Here in north-west England, where waste fracking fluid is being stored, some residents have already reported respiratory problems. In addition, being woken by earthquakes associated with fracking has caused psychological stress.
We expect passenger cars to be proved safe before they come to the market; the same should apply to energy policy.
Blackpool, Lancashire, UK
Science of sleep
Having been on call or rotating shifts for almost 40 years, I was interested in your Instant Expert on sleep, particularly the section on sleep cycles, to see how my coping mechanisms match current thinking (4 February).
I learned a long time ago that if you cannot have a whole night’s sleep, then having more than an hour but less than two will allow you to wake without feeling too drowsy. This fitted with your diagram showing all the phases of one sleep cycle occur in 1.5 hours.
Although waking from deep sleep, functions such as balance seem much better than if you wake part way through a cycle.
3D protection
You report that file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has started to offer “physibles” – digital objects that can be realised on 3D printers (4 February, p 22). The article says that while copyright and patents can protect music and inventions, there is very little protection for solid objects.
This is not the case in the UK, where “design right” and “registered designs” are used to protect intellectual property (IP) in the case of 3D objects. Design right is roughly the equivalent of copyright and automatically covers 3D designs, whereas a registered design offers more formal protection to specific designs.
It is true that these IP rights are fairly new and not as well tested in the courts as copyright and patents, but they do form the basis of the future protection of 3D designs.
Holy rights
I read with interest the interview with Isak Gerson, leader of the world’s newest religion “Kopimism”, which believes the act of copying information is holy, (14 January, p 25).
Does this mean students can now plagiarise others in their essays under the protection of their religious belief?
Predator vs alien
I find it disturbing that a scientist would suggest introducing elephants to Australia to eat fire-prone, invasive African grasses (11 February, p 29).
Elephants are a disruptive force in any ecosystem they inhabit, and the numbers required for any real impact on invasive grasses would be huge.
Getting such a project up and running would take a long time and be very expensive. There are 12,000 elephants in Kruger national park in South Africa, which covers only 19,500 square kilometres. It would take many decades before sufficient numbers built up for any impact to be made in Australia. And why should the elephants focus on the invasive gamba grass?
From Neil Padley
Talking of invasive species, I have often wondered if we could save polar bears from extinction by introducing them to Antarctica. I mostly thought it was a mad idea and I would think the penguins would not be too pleased. But how many penguins could a bear eat before it was full?
Ash, Hampshire, UK
Future worries
I am only part way through your 4 February issue and already worried. First, you report the possibility of drones in civilian air space (p 20). I dread a future blighted by them, advertising myriad things I don’t want while possibly also videoing me.
Then there is the story on the FBI plan to monitor social networks (p 21), which it says is to detect terrorist activity. Who decides what counts as terrorist activity and how can I ensure that a seemingly innocuous comment by me is not misinterpreted?
Finally, bendy batteries woven into fabrics could be used to defibrillate me if necessary (p 22). With the ability of even the best technology to crash, I don’t relish the prospect of getting an unexpected few hundred volts when walking down the street.
Musical notes
Computer-generated art and music may reveal much about ourselves, as your feature suggested (14 January, p 42). Music arises from the interplay between two fundamental brain mechanisms – pattern recognition and novelty detection. Since our brains can detect patterns and novelty on many levels, music can include patterns within patterns within patterns.
Consider a series of random piano notes. If each of the 88 notes on the keyboard is equally probable, the result is usually unpleasant. But restricting the series to only black keys within, say, a two-octave range gives results that are definitely musical.
Yet even though the note sequence is random, you will soon habituate unless there is additional novelty, even something as simple as randomly changing the octave range or instrument voice.
With a few rules like these, a computer can create surprisingly listenable results. While such quasi-random frontier music is fun to play with, it isn’t likely to put musicians out of work. But it does help illuminate what our brains find interesting and pleasing.
Doom and gloom
Limits to Growth co-author Dennis Meadows, stated in his letter (21 January, p 28): “Humanity’s use of energy and materials is now so far above the globe’s long-term, sustainable capacity that collapse of some sort is inevitable.”
This reminded me of a conversation I had with American geophysicist M. King Hubbert, of the Hubbert curve/we-are-running-out-of-oil fame, about 50 years ago.
Me: “You have painted a most disturbing picture of our future; if we were to take the necessary steps, starting now, do you think we have time to avoid the collapse your models predict?”
Hubbert: “Oh, no, it is much too late – one slows down an ocean liner miles from the dock, not a quarter-mile away.”
Exponentially growing consumption of finite resources fuelled by overpopulation is a recipe for disaster.
Hubbert then, like Meadows now, was crying out “iceberg ahead”, but these warnings have few listeners.
Cleaning up
Your story on antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in Antarctic seawater said that Chilean bases on the continent “have virtually no sewage treatment in place” (28 January, p 12).
As principal author of the article in that gave rise to this report, I would like to point out that the three bases mentioned do have systems for cleaning waste water.
The Bernardo O’Higgins station treats waste water by decanting, filtration, chemical and biological processing in closed containers. The Arturo Prat base has biological treatment of residual water, while Fildes Bay also carries out enzymatic treatment.
The Chilean Antarctic Institute is always interested in complying with standards to protect the Antarctic environment, and Chile has provided its permanent bases with modern equipment for waste water treatment that is constantly improving.
Jet-lagged
Your story linking sleep disturbance and mental illness (28 January, p 12) did not mention the worrying corollary that maybe jet lag has more profound effects on mental functioning than just making us tired.
The fact that many important decisions are made by people who have just stepped off an intercontinental flight is enough reason for concern. The possibility that jet lag impairs judgement in other ways deserves serious investigation.
For the record
• In our opinion piece on flu research (28 January, p 28) we said that a major journal is holding back a sensitive paper on the plague bacterium. The paper is not on plague but on another undisclosed bacterium considered a prime bioweapons risk.