Printing peace
The problem of 3D printers being used to print plastic guns is in the air again (6 October, p 22), with my own printer mentioned as one potential route.
As the article points out, attempts to use the law to prevent this are unlikely to succeed. . bring more benefits than problems, explosives seem the obvious exception. They have limited beneficial uses in mining, quarrying and demolition, although we do have alternatives for each. However, the principal use is the opposite of beneficial – killing. What’s more, virtually every machine that we make for killing relies on explosives, including guns.
Explosives contain organic molecules with a lot of energy locked up in their chemical bonds. In other words, they are an ideal potential food source for yeasts, bacteria and archaea. But explosives haven’t been around long enough for explosive-eating microbes to evolve.
Surely we could selectively breed such microbes – recombinant DNA techniques would probably not be needed – and release them into the wild?
Then bombs might rot in their silos and ammunition might turn to harmless waste.
Turbine turmoil
There is room for disagreement about the effects of wind turbines upon humans without casting those of us who suffer as wild-eyed hysterics (6 October, p 26).
I should dearly love to become a turbine refugee, but the 52 turbines in front of my house, the nearest being only 680 metres away, and more proposed behind it, mean that nobody is rushing to buy the property.
Oddly enough I find the constant movement of the blades more disturbing than the noise.
As the windows of every major room in the house look out onto the turbines, the curtains are kept drawn and as a result I have to take vitamin D tablets to make up for the lack of sunshine.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but I think wind turbines are the most beautiful things because they signify that there is a chance, a very slight chance, that my grandson has a future to look forward to.
I have little sympathy for those whose event horizon is selfishly limited to how they feel, when the whole reason for wind farms is to get rid of the carbon emissions that may potentially bring down our civilisation.
Fulham, South Australia
Human factor
Of the 10 most influential popular science books that were chosen as a result of your readers’ poll (29 September, p 48), only one is about physics – A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking – and only one is about mathematics – Chaos by James Gleick.
The other eight are all on biological themes, mainly to do with humanity. There are none on chemistry, engineering, astronomy (in the non-cosmological sense), space travel, logic/philosophy, computing or technology.
I know it’s risky to draw conclusions from a sample of just 4000 votes, but have we really become so introspective? I am filled with sadness and despair.
Reality's roundabout
It seems only logical for a circular definition to be the result of a search for the foundation of reality (29 September, p 34).
The alternative is either an endless chain of explanations of explanations, or an explanation of reality in terms of something unreal. If reality is to have finite depth, then it must have a circular definition. Indeed, I would say that this circularity is the essence of reality.
Aim for the stars
I was elated to read your interview with black American astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi, who recounted his journey from a tough childhood to his grand vision to democratise astronomy by putting telescopes in every country, including all the African nations (29 September, p 26). What a story. It highlights the fact that everyone can dream big and achieve those dreams.
Life's snapshots
As part of your special report on memory, David Robson wrote: “When people find it hard to recall specific events from their past, however, they feel overwhelmed by life’s challenges, which slowly pushes them into depression” (6 October, p 38).
This suggests that it might be a good idea to keep a regular visual record of life’s more enjoyable experiences, something made easier by small digital cameras and the vast and growing data storage capacities. The only downside is that formats change so fast it might not be possible to recover one’s record in later life if depression strikes.
• Some people, such as “lifeloggers”, already keep a daily visual record with this purpose in mind (25 February, p 52).
Although I am profoundly sceptical of the value of Freudian psychotherapy, I couldn’t help but note that the concept of an “over-general memory” being linked to depression and its alleviation by eliciting specific memories lends some support to it.
Sudbury, Massachusetts, US
It's chemical
I wonder whether the finding that giving alcoholics oxytocin helps them to quit drinking (13 October, p 18) may shed light on the success of programmes such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
Being an alcoholic is, almost by definition, a lonely condition, with the addiction replacing the social relationships that would usually stimulate oxytocin release. AA, with its group structure, may, for the first time in a long time, provide alcoholics with a natural release of oxytocin.
It would be interesting to see whether those attending such meetings, particularly early in their sobriety, have higher oxytocin levels than continuing alcoholics and those undergoing non-group treatments. If this is the case, it might suggest that the social aspect is the key to AA’s success, rather than its famous 12 steps and the higher power to which they refer.
Dream on?
You reported on the demographic shift in the US to a population with growing numbers of younger Hispanics and older residents of European extraction, and the need to address the inequality gap between the two, or risk undermining future national prosperity (22 September, p 8).
It seems to me that there is much less social advancement in the US than the myth of the American dream would have us believe. Just as in the UK, the country is run, as some commentators put it, by looters and rentiers. The great bulk of the population, the poor of whatever origins, are the main source of the magnates’ and oligarchs’ wealth.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing at all if immigration was the catalyst for a more equal society.
No harm
I found the letter suggesting that disabled competitors be allowed to self-harm to boost performance distasteful (29 September, p 29).
It is against the rules of the Paralympics and, more importantly, such activities can result in death. If that is not a good enough reason to ban the practice, then I don’t know what is.
While there may be some justifiable complaints about the categorisation of disabled competitors, it is clearly neither their right nor their privilege to engage in such activities.
Sports organisations have rules in place to discourage athletes from taking risks which endanger health, as well as attempting to guarantee a level playing field. I for one applaud such efforts and hope they continue.
Natural maths
I have always been amazed at physicist Eugene Wigner’s surprise that mathematics is so effective in the natural sciences, as mentioned in your look at whether reality is mathematics (29 September, p 38). Natural science is nothing if not the search for patterns in nature; mathematics is simply the science of patterns.
Humanity’s success in finding natural patterns has been the single most potent force for the generation of new mathematics, and that mathematics stands whether the pattern turns out to be a correct description of nature or not.
It is a common error of young physicists to believe that they only have to write an elegant formula and that nature will then comply. It is distressing to find that the idea also persists among established philosophers and mathematicians.
Spell bound
I enjoyed reading about research to use offbeat autocorrect text suggestions to inspire AI humour (13 October, p 23). The notion of injecting a touch of whimsy into a reminder system makes psychological sense as we quickly habituate to regularity and consistency, whereas our attention systems are hard-wired to respond to novelty.
As the author says, many of us will have experienced text prediction errors. My first cellphone was a reconditioned one and I can only assume its previous owner had some rather firmly held beliefs. The first time I tried to send a text I began to type “hello” but the word that appeared on the screen was “homophobic”. It may stretch credibility to breaking point but, when I next began to type “please”, what appeared instead was “pig”!
Mind the gap
I’m not sure the proposal in The Last Word to leave a gap of six to eight car lengths between vehicles to avoid phantom jams on motorways would work (6 October). In my experience, as traffic density builds, some lane-hopper will invariably cut into a gap that size. Drivers then close up to stop further cutting in. Human irrational behaviour always trumps nice neat computer flow models.
For the record
• Our editor’s attempt to scry the future of death last week (20 October, p 3) was so prescient that he inadvertently referenced this week’s Big Idea (p 30) rather than the one in that issue. Apologies for any confusion.