Winning biology
As a former director of the British Olympic Medical Centre, I totally agree with Katrina Karkazis and Rebecca Jordan-Young’s condemnation of the new sex-testing rules for female athletes (21 July, p 26).
All elite athletes are statistical outliers of our species, be they genetically advantaged by high-speed type IIx muscle fibres for sprinters and power athletes; genes and hormones for sheer size for rowers, throwers, lifters or basketball players; anatomical hypermobility for gymnasts; genetically unusual erythropoietin receptors for cross-country skiers, road cyclists and marathon runners; or by an absence of the muscle-inhibitor myostatin, which gives unusually large musculature and strength – in Belgian Blue beef cattle as well as humans, besides any outlier skill abilities or psychological determinants.
So what is the possible logic, never mind natural justice, in applying a cut-off for testosterone in women athletes, when that is precisely what may be making them outliers, in just the same way as any of the other outlier abnormalities? The over-representation of women with complete androgen insensitivity among elite athletes is particularly pertinent to their argument against testosterone being used in this way.
An Olympic finalist is an outlier by definition, and as such will definitely have “abnormal” physiological, psychological and/or neurofunctional parameters.
Sports metallurgy
Steve Haake’s fascinating Instant Expert on sports engineering (7 July) revived a thought I had, long ago, in my shot-putting days.
Having relatively small hands, and finding the 16-pound (7.26 kilogram) shot difficult to grip, I could not help thinking that if it were made of tungsten – which is nearly two-and-a-half times as dense as steel – it would be no larger than a cricket ball and perhaps could be hefted further.
A minor technological advance, but one which might alter world records, if legal.
New iron age?
You report on a successful trial of ocean iron-seeding to promote plankton growth and potential carbon sequestration via the sinking of their remains to the depths of the ocean (21 July, p 15). In demonstrating that at least half the material disappeared into the deep sea, the trial by Victor Smetacek and his colleagues provides the first evidence that it is possible to create a human-made conduit between the increasingly carbon-dioxide-burdened atmosphere and the ocean depths.
Will this open the floodgates to large-scale geoengineering of this kind to mitigate climate change? Probably not, since the logistics of finding the right spot are difficult and costly. Of the 12 ocean fertilisation experiments carried out since 1993, many showed the desired increase in CO2 drawdown from the atmosphere, but Smetacek’s is the only one that demonstrates the all-important carbon burial.
From Andy Ridgwell, University of Bristol
The work by Smetacek and colleagues is extremely interesting. Not only will it renew interest in the potential for removing fossil fuel CO2 from the atmosphere in this way – a technique not only banned under international regulations but previously assumed to be an inefficient way of sequestering carbon – it could also improve our understanding of past climates.
Exactly why atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the last glacial period were approximately one-third lower than the current, interglacial average is still hotly debated. The results of Smetacek’s study hint that glacial dust and iron on the ocean’s surface may be more important than we thought in strengthening the ocean carbon pump, and hence in lowering atmospheric CO2.
Bristol, UK
On punishment
That multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder (DID), might be supported by brain scan evidence and be used as a legal defence by a person’s “normal” personality, opens a can of worms (7 July, p 10).
We all have various denial and defence mechanisms from an early age which are integral to how our adult minds work. Sometimes they fail and lead to erratic or harmful behaviour. DID, it is suggested, is an extreme version of this.
Is the brain of such an individual less blameworthy or less dangerous than that of another with a different but equally menacing and destructive coping mechanism? Add to this the near certainty that other defendants will be able to demonstrate functional or anatomical differences in brain function, such as a psychopathic personality or uncontrollable rage, and the situation is more complicated still.
Rather than trying to apportion blame and dish out punishment accordingly, we should be aiming for a more pragmatic and less retributive system of justice, so that the length and nature of sentences is directly tied to the risk posed by an individual.
It might be possible to use the future growth of evidence of variations in brain function behind criminal acts to encourage moves in the direction of such pragmatism, though I fear that politicians and the tabloid press might take a lot of persuading.
Science is fair
So there have been some nationalistic concerns that the great accomplishments of Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam and Indian physicist Satyendranath Bose have not been sufficiently appreciated within the historical context of the recent discovery of the Higgs boson (14 July, p 5).
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili’s depiction of the two is accurate: among physicists both men are regarded as giants. He goes on to say: “Science transcends such petty distinctions as race, nationality or religion.”
Well, at least in principle if not always in practice; and let us add gender to Al-Khalili’s list, in recognition of women’s contribution to science.
And, yes, if only the wider world could transcend such distinctions in treating not just all scientists, but all human beings, fairly.
That's disgusting
Your feature on disgust (14 July, p 34) rekindled a relevant memory. Several years ago while working in Denmark, I visited the magnificent Aalborg Zoo. The gorilla enclosure was separated from visitors by a clear screen rather than bars, and so you could get quite close to the animals.
One particular day many parents and children were observing these amazing creatures, when suddenly a silverback sitting close to the screen and looking at us, threw up. It then began to eat the vomit. The incident quickly cleared everyone from the area. Surely that has to be the ultimate universal “yuck”.
Maybe the sight of us caused the yuck factor in this gorilla, though he obviously decided the reaction wasn’t worth wasting good food over.
Northern delights
You mention North Korea’s capital Pyongyang as a “drab and featureless” city for lacking billboards, neon signs and shopfronts (19 May, p 3). But I lived and worked there for a few months, and found it surprisingly beautiful and clean, with lots of parks, viewpoints, attractive buildings, recreation spots and fantastic subway stations.
Heifer hangover
In his letter, Paul Bennett says that he bears witness to drunken waxwings (16 June, p 33). I can bear witness to drunken cows.
I used to live on a commune in Glastonbury, Somerset, UK, where the farm animals could wander at will. The cows used to go into the orchard and eat fallen apples, which would ferment in their stomachs. The staggering bovines were the funniest thing I’ve seen.
Political gap
Letters from Roger Taylor (14 July, p 28) and John Hastings (14 July, p 29) highlight a problem with politicians. Basically, not just in North Carolina where they contemplated a bill to forbid predictions of accelerating sea-level rises, but in most elected governments, politicians are not clever enough to understand complex issues such as climate change, and resolve them.
A full reconsideration of governance is required. True leaders, of whom there are few, look to the next generation, and it is they who we need.
It takes two
I have always been surprised at the annoyance over Pluto being “demoted” to dwarf planet status (21 July, p 11). The meaning of the word planet has changed as new discoveries have been made. Pre-Copernicus, the sun and moon were considered planets because they were lights in the sky seen to move in a regular, calculable way against the background of stars. Earth couldn’t be observed this way and so wasn’t a planet.
After Copernicus put the sun at the centre of our system, the meaning changed, then had to be further refined as we discovered asteroids and planetary moons. Now that P5, a satellite of Pluto, has been discovered, perhaps the simplest answer is to define Pluto and its largest moon Charon as “binary planets” – a new category based on the term used for binary stars – with the remaining four moons classed as “satellites in a binary planetary system”.
Although this arrangement seems unique, I’m sure we’ll find more examples, and it would be useful to have this new description handy.
Biological bicycle
Robert Bright is undoubtedly on the right track with his biological theory of why some objects multiply while others disappear (14 July, p 29), but is late to the game. Avram Davidson was first, though the life cycle he described in his short story “Or all the seas with oysters” (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1958) was from safety pins to coat hangers to bicycles.
For the record
• In our piece on von Economo cells (21 July, p 32), we claim that time seems to pass more slowly when we feel excited emotionally. In fact, we probably perceive time to pass more quickly when there is more emotional information to process.