Older but better
You report on a Mozilla Firefox browser plug-in called Lightbeam, designed to reveal the numerous websites which grab data when you browse (2 November, p 23).
However, going a step further would be useful. The old firewall program Zone Alarm Professional version 7 could not only detect all these data grabbers, but also allow you to block them. Sadly, subsequent versions omitted this wonderful privacy feature.
London, UK
A wee song
Your coverage of the 21-second universal law of urination (26 October, p 18) reminds me it has been common knowledge on the British music scene for years. The garage act So Solid Crew in their 2001 hit 21 Seconds were in full agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
You get a real sense of the artist’s bladder frustration in the lyrics: “I got 21 seconds to flow. I got 21 seconds to go… don’t gimmie no deadline gimmie some more time… I got 21 seconds to go”. Poetically put.
London, UK
Matthew matters
While it is excellent that Alfred Russel Wallace is at last getting his due credit alongside Charles Darwin for his work on the theory of evolution (9 November, p 48), could I make a plea for the same thing to happen to arboriculturist Patrick Matthew? Both Darwin and Wallace admitted that Matthew beat them to the idea of natural selection, a fact accepted by Darwin’s contemporaries Thomas Huxley and John Tyndall.
Despite this, Matthew is rarely mentioned in popular articles on the history of evolution, and historians also generally ignore him. If Darwin and Wallace could accept Matthew’s priority on natural selection, why can’t we lesser mortals do the same?
Sheffield, UK
Ancient cancer
Further to your look at how common “modern” diseases were in the past (9 November, p 36). I showed some years ago that the age-specific prevalence rates of cancers that involve bone were of the same order of magnitude in the past as they are today.
This finding is in line with the hypothesis that the burden of human cancer has not changed over time, only the manner in which it appears, something determined by, among other things, diet, habits like smoking, and environmental factors.
London, UK
Save our trees
Having just got thoroughly soaked clearing leaves from a blocked drain, I find it hard to believe that trees planted in urban streets prevent flooding.
Hindhead, Surrey, UK
Save our trees
Hurrah for your look at the benefits of urban trees, so relevant to my own worries about the loss of city foliage (9 November, p 40). At present, I am disturbed by plans to fell mature poplars on a stretch of the north bank of the river Avon in Bath in the UK to make way for flood prevention measures ahead of proposed housing development.
Last spring, nightingales were singing in these trees, and one tree has been a fishing platform for six cormorants for years. Wandering among these trees feels like being in a forest. Efforts to replace them won’t be enough.
Bath, UK
Two-way deal
In his look at a world without online anonymity, Chris Baraniuk considers the effect on behaviour towards another person, if the first person can remain anonymous (26 October, p 34).
I wonder what the behavioural effects would be if, every time someone wanted to record or view my email or phone data, my financial transactions or travel plans, they first had to make it possible for me to trace their real name and address. After all, they’re not doing anything wrong, illegal or shameful – are they?
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Nuclear no-no
I was very surprised to read in your editorial that nuclear fission reactors are accepted as one of the energy providers that should feature in the UK’s energy generation portfolio (9 November, p 3). As has been pointed out before in your magazine, Germany has decided to abandon that approach. The case against nuclear power is overwhelming.
If there was a serious nuclear accident, a large part of the country would have to be evacuated, and might not be safe to live in for at least a generation.
Also, the decreasing cost of alternatives is such that nuclear power will never be able to compete with them financially.
Not least, a nuclear plant would be a relatively easy target for terrorists.
Westcliff on Sea, Essex, UK
Fatal error
Hugh Newbury writes that turning off a self-aware robot would not be considered murder (2 November, p 32).
Surely the more relevant question is how one would respond if, prior to such an act, the robot said: “Please don’t turn me off, I don’t want to die.”
Edinburgh, UK
Better way to go
The use of hyperbaric chambers as a humane method to render chickens unconscious before slaughter (9 November, p 14) brought to mind my flying training. A group of us were put into a decompression chamber to learn how to recognise the signs of hypoxia before we passed out.
We wore oxygen masks, and the operator cut off the oxygen to each person in turn, without saying who would be next. What we found was that the others in the group would notice the effect on the person whose oxygen was cut off – blue fingertips and loss of performance while writing – but the person deprived of oxygen was oblivious that this was happening and invariably lost consciousness.
Is there any better example of how humane the process is? Why is it not discussed as the method of choice for places where voluntary euthanasia is legal?
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK
Gaia's no saviour
One of the dangers of Gaia theory – that life steers the environment in its favour – is that we might be tempted to rely on it as a sort of omnipotent safety net that will save us from any mess the planet gets into. Luckily, your recent article (26 October, p 30) pours doubt on Gaia’s past role.
Even if the theory were right, it might not have been able to save us. Even Gaia could not know what would hit in the future, just as inductive logic’s free-range chicken, while noting that the sun has always risen in the past, is oblivious to the glint of the farmer’s axe. Gaia could be dealt a fatal blow by a supernova, asteroid, or the collapse of Earth’s magnetic field.
La Tour d’Aigues, France
Land issues
Jonathan Seagrave backs tree planting on unused farmland to capture carbon (2 November, p 32). If only it were that simple. In Scotland it is difficult to find land or financial support to plant native trees to provide multiple benefits, including carbon sequestration, because of competing demands for crop growing or livestock grazing.
And in parts of the Scottish Highlands where sheep are no longer grazed, the numbers of red deer have risen dramatically, so tree regeneration is unlikely without heavy culling to lessen damage to trees.
Lauder, Scottish Borders, UK
Old tricks
Douglas Heaven writes about the spooky illusion created by staring into a mirror in poor light (2 November, p 39). He seems to be describing “scrying”, known since medieval times.
It was done using a polished surface, such as a sword, mirror or crystal ball, in low light. The resulting facial distortion was ascribed to angels and visions of the future.
English scientist John Dee famously formed a partnership in the 16th century with scryer Edward Kelley. He was impatient to obtain a short cut to knowledge, frustrated by the scientific methods of the time.
One further comparison is to Charles Bonnet syndrome, in which partial or complete blindness results in hallucinations of extraordinary clarity that seem to be the result of the brain’s drive to make sense of fragmentary or partial information from the eye, as suggested for the illusion.
Didsbury, Manchester, UK
Saving time
To add to Slezak’s uncertainty over the meaning, and indeed existence, of time, I was taught that “time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana”.
Southampton, UK
Saving time
One thing you can be sure of, when you’ve lived many years, is that while “now” may not exist much longer, “then” always will.
Austin, Texas, US
Saving time
In Michael Slezak’s article on time, what a delight to find cosmologist George Ellis arguing that “the passage of time [is] one of the most fundamental features of daily life” and “the whole process of doing science depends on time rolling on” (2 November, p 34).
If physics thinks it has killed time, good luck to it. As a simple biologist, I heave a sigh of relief at Ellis’s statement.
Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
Briefcase or baby?
Your look at the paradox of why women in wealthier nations tend to have fewer children included social psychologist Kristina Durante’s finding that women living in US states with a low proportion of men tend to have highly paid jobs (26 October, p 46). This is perhaps not surprising.
However, her suggestion that this is due to the unavailability of eligible partners, making women choose a briefcase over babies, is open to question.
A simpler, more direct explanation could be that women in those states face less competition from men for the lucrative jobs. Women holding prominent posts may then, in turn, be less likely to start a family.
Paris, France
Better way to go
The vacuum technology described in your article about chicken slaughter reduces the oxygen concentration to lower levels than required for life. Coincidentally, it also reduces the CO2 levels, and it is this that avoids suffering. A similar result could be achieved by subjecting the animals to an atmosphere of pure nitrogen, so letting their breathing flush out CO2, without taking in oxygen.
Oxford, UK