Maize controversy
The by Gilles-Eric Séralini and colleagues at the University of Caen in France linking cancer tumours in rats with maize modified to resist the herbicide Roundup, has been judged by the European Food Safety Authority to be scientifically unsound because of inadequacies in its design, reporting and analysis (8 December, p 7).
As the EFSA report recommended, it is now time for the journal that published it, Food and Chemical Toxicology, to retract the study.
Due to intense scrutiny post-publication, this paper has been peer-reviewed to a far greater degree than most papers, yet despite no independent scientific expert being able to support its design, reporting or analysis, it remains, gathering citations and increasing the impact factor for the journal.
• The latest position of the journal is outlined in a on its website.
Human fork
Catherine Brahic’s discussion of fresh efforts to pin down when humans split from chimps (24 November, p 34) is a nice example of the contribution of quantitative genetics to understanding evolution, but there is another strand to the story of the emergence of humans – the significant qualitative difference between humans and chimpanzees. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes rather than the 24 of the great apes.
When this chromosomal rearrangement occurred in a germ cell of our common ancestor, the mother and daughter cells contained identical complements of genes, but the difference in how those genes were packaged would have resulted in changes in how and where genes were expressed.
I have carried out calculations, which I hope to publish in 2013, showing that such chromosomal rearrangements can result in partial reproductive isolation that over many generations may lead to formation of separate species even in the absence of geographic isolation, a process known as sympatric speciation. Proving this hypothesis of human evolution will require karyotyping our protohuman ancestors to show their chromosomal make-up, and for that we need a body preserved in ice. Given our tropical origins, this may not be easy.
• Sympatric speciation remains contentious.
Taxing times
Marion Nestle writes that the Danish fat tax, now being dropped after a year, brought in $216 million and that “Danes will now face higher income taxes to make up for the loss of the fat tax” (24 November, p 28). One of the reasons for the unpopularity of the fat tax was that hikes in product taxes hit the population indiscriminately, in this case possibly hitting low-income households harder.
Had the fat tax not been introduced after a decade of increases in product taxes amidst income tax reductions – some would argue benefiting high income earners most – it might have been more palatable.
LHC reality check
The editorial and cover story in your 10 November issue (p 3 and p 34) discuss the aftermath of this year’s grandest scientific finding – the discovery of a new boson, most likely the Higgs – along with a possible successor to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
First, we must clarify beyond doubt that the particle is the Higgs boson. Then, the LHC needs to find signs of new physics beyond the standard model. As for what comes after the LHC, I believe it is too early to develop a new machine. The LHC will operate for many years to come, and it is unclear that taxpayers want to invest in a huge new particle physics project. For now, we should be patient, optimistic, and use the powers of the LHC.
No disrespect to the intellectual giants analysing the LHC results, but as a non-physicist, the look at how the emerging nature of the Higgs is confounding hopes of discovering new physics reads like a script from The Goon Show.
I wonder, are the thought processes of these particle physicists so deeply embedded in this world of sparticle dancing partners that they forget it’s not reality they are describing, but a human interpretation of experimental results.
Mount Waverley, Victoria, Australia
Birds and bees
In his recent letter, Gavin Lawrence asked if advances in modelling bee flight had been used in the design of wind turbines (1 December, p 31). The answer is sort of.
Vertical axis turbines in gustier areas are more effective if the blade is designed to be like a small bird’s wings, exploiting the unsteady aerodynamic effects that bees also benefit from. Fatigue testing of some turbine blades, in which a flapping motion is induced, is informed by the insect flight simulations he mentioned.
Revised wisdom
Your article on the growing use of genetic markers to eliminate confounding factors in clinical studies, overturning some earlier epidemiological conclusions, gave me a shock: a major contributor to heart health has been eliminated overnight (24 November, p 8).
So good cholesterol has zero direct impact on coronary heart disease? What an extraordinary result after 60 years of insistence on the converse being fact.
Wind fans
Your online article by Michael Brooks on the UK energy bill asked if British consumers are prepared to shoulder the higher initial costs of energy from renewables (), and touched on some interesting aspects of decision-making theory.
His view seems to be that experts broadly support further decarbonisation, even if it increases energy prices, while the public, if newspaper headlines are to be believed, do not.
Setting aside the question of whether public feeling is accurately represented in the media, polling tells a different story: one of widespread support for renewable energy, environmental protection and sustainability, even if it means higher costs.
For instance, a poll by Ipsos MORI in April showed that 43 per cent of consumers think 2 pence a day extra – the amount currently paid for wind energy as part of consumer bills – is good value. Only 19 per cent believed this was poor value.
As for politicians, this broad expert-public agreement on renewables should spur them into action without delay, as they seem to be the only demographic not fully on board.
Wax pioneer
In your article on omniphobic materials, you credit Christoph Neinhuis and Wilhelm Barthlott with the discovery of the water-repellent properties of plant epicuticular waxes in 1997 (24 November, p 46). Without in any way detracting from their work, I would point out that Barrie Juniper’s pioneering electron microscope work on epicuticular waxes at Oxford some 40 years earlier had demonstrated how they confer
He also discovered the part played by wax structures in the trapping of insects by pitcher plants, which you mention. He is probably best known now for his more recent work on the history and genetics of the cultivated apple. A brilliant man.
Error message
In your feature on technological progress, anthropologist Dietrich Stout suggests that the march of innovation may result from copying errors, in a manner analogous to genetic mutations in evolution (29 September, p 30). This reminds me of the programmer’s saying: “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”
From William Hughes-Games
The observation that Tasmanians’ tool technology went backwards when they were cut off from a larger Australian population by sea level rise is scary (29 September, p 30). A similar thing happened in Europe when the Romans withdrew.
For instance, it wasn’t until the Victorian age that London had a water grid or sewage system even half as good as it had under Roman rule. I hope such a thing could never happen again.
Moving New York
Superstorm Sandy emphasised that New York is a trillion-dollar sitting duck with embedded feet at the mercy of the elements (10 November, p 6). So maybe a phased retreat from endangered areas is the way forward.
A safe site must be well-planned for Nova York, to cope with the outflux. Private investment would cater for offices, restaurants and other infrastructure to provide for early movers.
It will be gradual transition, but a start needs to be made now.
No food for thought
Fifty years ago I discovered the benefit of periodic fasting (17 November, p 46). Initially this was a way to settle my stomach, but I soon found it also cleared my head for writing and exams.
For anyone thinking of fasting, it is easier if you start with a good lunch. Then you’ll be asleep when hunger pangs are most intense.
Random beginning
Philosophers and theologians of a traditional kind might be interested in your article on cosmic origins (1 December, p 32) which acknowledges the universe must have had a beginning, even though we might not know when that might have been. And as all theories must have existed before this event, I should like to congratulate whoever chose quantum theory to run it…
Sweet reason
Regarding the correlation between chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates per capita (3 November, p 56), surely a country that can afford more confectionary will be able to afford facilities for potential Nobel laureate research.