Higgs reaction
Only time will tell whether or not the particle identified in experiments at CERN is the Higgs boson (14 July, p 6) – or just one of many, since theory suggests there may be more than one.
For the moment, we have reached what seems to be the summit of achievement. Yet we still have to measure the particle’s properties – like its spin, and how often it decays in different ways.
Only by probing its interactions with the world around it will we know whether or not it is the Higgs many were expecting.
From Jerome Gauntlett, head of theoretical physics, Imperial College London
This is a great moment for science. It is wonderful that the profound and visionary ideas of British physicists, including Peter Higgs in Edinburgh and Tom Kibble at Imperial College, are receiving such dramatic confirmation.
As with all great discoveries, this one is likely to have a huge impact on fundamental scientific enquiry. More detailed studies of the properties of the new particle might illuminate the nature of the mysterious dark matter that pervades the universe.
We may find evidence that there is a new “supersymmetry” in the universe, and we might also learn whether or not there are extra dimensions, in addition to the three spatial dimensions that we can observe. Such work should provide valuable clues to the ultimate question in fundamental physics, which is how to unify the standard model of particle physics with Einstein’s theory of gravity.
London, UK
From Martin Trevelyan-Jones
Following the announcement by the researchers at CERN, I feel at last I can make use of the crossword clue I’ve been waiting for years to deploy – “Gosh Gibson it’s the particle!” (5,5).
Old Colwyn, Conwy, UK
Irrational fear
Fear not for rationalist Sanal Edamaruku, facing arrest for debunking claims of a miracle at a Catholic church in Mumbai (30 June, p 27). He is a great guy who works tirelessly to stamp out ignorance, and nothing has happened to him yet.
I still recall one instance a couple of years back involving a tantrik, who claimed he could kill with curses and cure with magic. Supposedly, even powerful politicians consulted him. Edamaruku called his bluff, and challenged the magic man to kill him with a curse on live TV.
Of course, the mumbo jumbo failed. If you want to watch the encounter, it is still on .
From Paul Nash
The supposed miracle in Mumbai reminds me of a time when some Hindu school students told me that their parents had taken them to a shrine of Ganesh, the deity portrayed with an elephant’s head, where they were shown a statue of the god weeping tears of milk. Diplomatic considerations meant that I only allowed myself an oblique sceptical response.
I hope that Edamaruku manages to avoid jail for his worthy countercultural efforts.
Dublin, Eire
ET knows best
What is it that the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) expects to gain from contact with aliens (30 June, p 28)? I suspect that like naughty children we are waiting for a superior being – maybe a mother figure – to tell us what to do. We know what we are going to be told: stop polluting the air with carbon dioxide, stop overfishing, stop replacing rainforests with palm oil plantations, and so on.
We know what we should do, but we cannot bear to forgo low-cost energy and food to save the future. And when a superior intelligence imposes discipline on us, will it be with a carrot or stick?
From Gaute Tor Eide
Why is it only here, on this small blue rock we call home that we can see clear examples of life as we know it? Can we really be alone in the universe?
We should keep investigating every option, turn every rock, visit every planet, and look and listen to every star, just in case one may hold the answer to one of our oldest and arguably most profound questions.
Eide, Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Life's origins
In your look at how life on Earth might have emerged, Nick Lane notes that complex cells evolved just once (23 June, p 32). All eukaryotes alive today descended from a common ancestor, but what if other lineages came about only to go extinct? When a cell absorbs a different cell type in the kind of process that eventually led to energy-generating mitochondria in eukaryotic cells, as Lane rightly states “a lot of difficult co-adaptation” is required.
So if another lineage of complex cells were to evolve when there was already a well-adapted lineage, the new arrival would probably be outcompeted and become extinct.
Would this not prevent more than one lineage enduring, just as we observe? Could similar reasons also explain why life on Earth only appears to have arisen once?
The editor writes:
• It is possible, but there are reasons to think it unlikely. Bacteria thrive without mitochondria, and some complex cells have lost theirs, evolved alternative energy generating organelles called hydrogenosomes instead, or gained entirely new endosymbionts – outside organisms that are absorbed and become a functioning part of the cell, all without wiping out the competition or being wiped out themselves. There is even an amoeba that has acquired new “chloroplasts” in a separate event from all other plants.
The origin of life is a different matter: early examples would have consumed the “soup” of organic molecules, forever changing the original conditions that gave rise to life.
It's complex
As observation and much psychological research show, contrary to Philip Penton’s letter (7 July, p 31), not everyone cheats. The strength of people’s moral code varies hugely. It is this that is interesting and needs understanding.
And, when I consider the complex and changing nature of my political beliefs and the various circumstances that determine how I act, I do not feel that the crude, broad-brush research that was outlined on the same page by David Flint’s letter gets us far in understanding our value judgements.
Value for money
In your editorial (7 July, p 5) you assume that the $1 million it would take to keep an asteroid-spotting telescope going for five more years is good value.
Almost certainly, the expected number of lives saved by the $1 million spent on planetary defence would be dwarfed by the same amount spent on, for example, clean, reliable water supplies in African or South American slums.
This won't hurt
Your story on an insulin pill (23 June, p 20) states that it could spell the end for “painful injections”. In Australia, diabetes educators have for years taught good injecting techniques. It takes a truly clumsy person to make an injection hurt.
Far too many parents teach their children terror of needles, syringes and injectables.
Ball breaker
In his letter, Richard Wilson suggests a more humane way of controlling the testosterone-fuelled excesses of investment bankers than by castration (30 June, p 30).
However, when you consider the damage done to economies worldwide by their greed and recklessness, and the resulting misery inflicted, the idea of surgery does have its appeal.
Trust is gone
John Sulston writes in his letter “the Rio declaration appears to agree so little”, later stating “we must trust [world leaders] to deliver our future” (7 July, p 30). For 20 years we have watched world leaders duck, dive, obfuscate and lie whilst governments and corporations trash the planet in the name of profit and prosperity.
We are now much closer to a tipping point that will produce catastrophic climate change. Indeed, as Stephen Battersby reports on page 32 of the same edition, climate change is already producing more extreme weather than predicted.
As we walk towards the abyss, the last thing we owe to those who have led us here is trust.
Mind over body
Controlling robots with our minds through an fMRI scanner may offer hope for disabled people and those with locked-in syndrome (7 July, p 19). But wouldn’t it be better to link two humans in that way – for one to embody another?
In places where skilled surgeons are not to be had, surgical robots may not be any use, but instead surgeons could inhabit other doctors or even nurses, to perform vital and difficult operations.
Above all, we may learn what it is like to be somebody else.
Or how about inhabiting virtual bodies in virtual worlds. Then no one would have to be locked-in ever again.
Tinted view
Jeff Hecht discusses the possible benefit of being exposed to less blue light at night and more by day, and suggests varying the light sources to which we are exposed (30 June, p 42).
This may be an ideal solution, but since light receptors are in the eyes, a far less expensive and more easily achievable way would be to wear appropriately tinted spectacles at different times of the day.
The editor writes:
• Night-time amber glasses, which cancel out blue wavelengths, are on the market.
Docs take note
Your special report on the treatment of lung cancer (30 June, p 6) is very illuminating. The UK’s National Health Service will be neglecting its duty if it does not ensure that this is drawn to the attention of all its chest specialists, oncologists and GPs.