Letter: Unit mistrust
I was intrigued by the advertisement for subscriptions to New 杏吧原创
in your issue of 13 January. Newton did indeed surprise the world with the
laws of motion. He may even have said something like, ‘It is equal to the
force which, acting on a mass of one kilogramme, produces an acceleration
of one metre per second per second’. But I don’t think that the man who
produced the inverse square law would have had a clue about metres and kilogrammes
(the metric system had its beginnings in the 1790s). New 杏吧原创 certainly
does have its surprises!
Conor O’Carroll Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh
Letter: Valuable coppice
I disagree with C. Hambler’s statement that ‘coppicing can no longer
be seen as an environmentally friendly activity’ (Letters, 27 January).
While I agree coppicing removed dead and mature trees, causing extinctions
of specialised dead wood insect communities, this occurred centuries ago,
when man started to manage Europe’s forests. The poor powers of dispersal
of these species mean that they have not recolonised recently abandoned
coppice, which has also not developed the maturity of trees necessary to
support such insects. They remain only in a very few ancient forests.
Active coppice is, however, a very valuable habitat, simulating the
open space in original European ‘Wildwood’ which would naturally have been
created and maintained by windthrow, fires, grazing animals and beavers.
Many species of plant and insect are specifically adapted to the warm sheltered
conditions in such open space and are now dependent on coppice for their
survival.
The study cited by Hambler shows only that communities associated with
undershrub foliage architecture, leaf mining moths and web spinning spiders,
decline in the early stages of coppice, which is to be expected, and that
these communities recover as the coppice regrows. The study does not look
at the benefits of coppicing for those species dependent on early successional
conditions.
Britain has lost 98 per cent of its actively coppiced woodland in the
past 100 years, through abandonment and clearance. Many insects, such as
the high brown fritillary butterfly, have declined drastically as a result.
It is the loss, not revival, of coppicing that is provoking concern among
conservation entomologists.
R. S. Key Nature Conservancy Council Peterborough
Letter: Beating bed bugs
The bed bug treatments described by Fiona King (‘Mind the bugs don’t
bite’, 27 February) remind me of the advice given in The Vermin Killer published
in 1680. This was to ‘take gunpowder, brush it well into the bedstead, light
it, and keep the smoke in’. Presumably if it didn’t kill them, it gave them
a very nasty headache! In 1775 Andrew Cooke of Holborn was claiming he had
‘cured 16 000 beds with great applause’, and Tiffin & Son were advertising
themselves as ‘Bug Destroyers to Her Majesty and the Royal Family’, according
to Henry Mayhew’s London Life and The London Poor published in 1851.
In 1974, Peter Cornwell, then director of research at Rentokil, suggested
that carriage of bed bugs in the crevices of musical instruments, notably
the guitar, is not unknown. A Rentokil survey showed 60 per cent of infestations
in domestic properties and 25 per cent in holiday premises (hotels, boarding
houses, hostels and holiday camps). Most were in Devon and Cornwall, Lancashire,
London, Glamorgan and North Wales.
The answer to the concern about officially cleared pesticides for bed
bugs is surely for manufacturers to apply for ‘minor use’ approval, or for
those afflicted by bed bugs to use the services of a professional pest control
company unlikely to resort to gunpowder.
P. L. G. Bateman Rentokil East Grinstead, West Sussex
Letter: Beating bed bugs
Fiona King’s feature took me back to my National Service days in Tyersall
Barracks, Singapore, between 1956 and 1957.
The huts at Tyersall were long wooden structures. The beds were the
standard iron-framed type. Just after I got there, the authorities decided
to issue us all with foam rubber mattresses – an expensive undertaking in
those days – in an attempt to defeat the bedbug menace. In fact, of course,
the bugs lived in the woodwork of the huts and in the internal angles of
the iron beds. On any night of the week you were likely to be disturbed
by a softly cursing fellow soldier carrying his mattress to the table in
the middle of the room in order to spend the rest of the night relatively
unbitten. A look under his bed the next day would disclose a hellish mass
of creatures and eggs.
We had some nameless white powder with which to treat the bugs, but
so far as I remember they seemed to thrive on it. The usual squaddie treatment
was to buy a can of lighter fuel, carry the iron bed out onto the grass,
soak it with fuel and set fire to it. This was known as ‘burning your bed’
– as in, ‘See you in half an hour lads, I’ve just got to burn my bed.’ If
you were careful you could play a jet of fuel into the corners as the bed
burned – though there were interesting moments as the flame advanced, mesmerically,
up the stream and into the can.
Interestingly, we really didn’t worry very much. The bites itched, and
you occasionally discovered an adventurous bug that had moved into your
clothing. Never, though, did we spare a thought about disease. Thirty-five
years on, though, in soft middle-class middle-age, I get the heeby-jeebies
just thinking about it!
Gerald Haigh Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Letter: Books in the making
Robin Denell’s review of the book Human Origins which we published last
June may, I fear, leave your readers with the impression that Oxford University
Press was unduly slow in handling the book (Review, 27 January). This is
not the case – unless your reviewer holds the flattering belief that the
OUP has magical or other powers extending beyond the realms of publishing
as it is generally understood.
There were indeed delays with the book but they were not of our making.
It would be inappropriate to offer detailed explanations here, but the untimely
death of one of the contributors (which is, in fact, mentioned by your reviewer)
was certainly one of the causes of the delay.
That the OUP can bring books out quickly is demonstrated by the fact
that publication times of six months and less (measured from receipt of
final manuscript to publication) are currently being achieved for a significant
proportion of our titles. As a university press we regard science books
as urgent assignments to be published with alacrity. But, of course, we
cannot start until we have a typescript (or discs); and we have to give
authors the opportunity of seeing edited manuscripts and of correcting proofs.
Bruce Wilcock Oxford University Press
Letter: Perceptions of time
Richard Gould (‘A briefer history of time’, Forum, 27 January) is simply
getting older and experiencing the phenomenon of the ‘Relative passage of
time’. My theory states that ‘One perceives the passage of time in relation
to the length of time one has already experienced’.
Thus, to a 10-year-old, one year appears to be 10 per cent of its lifetime.
To a 60-year-old, however, one year is subjectively much briefer, only 1.67
per cent of its lifetime. So as one ages, the years appear to pass by more
quickly.
This also explains why contented pensioners, like myself, often wonder
how they ever found time to go to work.
J. A. Perry Llangollen, Clwyd
Letter: Sale of ivory
I profoundly regret the decision announced recently by the Foreign Secretary
to allow the sale of the Hong Kong ivory stockpile. Many conservationists
believe that the most effective strategy to save the elephant disappearing
over much of Africa is a three-pronged approach: the reduction in demand
by consumer countries, a trade ban and tougher measures to prevent poaching
in the field. Britain set out its stall in this debate when it banned the
import of ivory in June 1989. Subsequently, through the Secretary of State
for the Environment, Britain joined 76 other nations in voting to ban the
ivory trade at the CITES conference in Lausanne in October 1989.
The over-riding of the environment minister’s decision by his more senior
colleague was taken for the sake of postponing the loss of around 2000 ivory
carvers’ jobs in Hong Kong. This decision could have serious consequences
for the elephant. As importantly, it will also throw doubt into the international
arena about the value of Britain’s stance on other treaties dealing with
global environmental issues, such as the ozone hole. Sadly this U-turn serves
only to question the credibility of professed government concern over environmental
issues and to undermine the work of British scientists working in conservation.
N. Leader-Williams Large Animal Research Group Department of Zoology
University of Cambridge
Letter: Star turn
Lance Fogan’s article on Shakespeare and brain function prompts me to
inquire whether a similar study has been made on the Bard’s pronouncements
astronomic (‘The neurologist of Avon’, 20 January). Consider, for instance,
Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia (Act II, Scene ii): ‘Doubt thou the stars are
fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never
doubt I love.’
The second line was written some 60 years after Copernicus’s publication
of his heliocentric theory. Did Shakespeare write in ignorance of this;
was he trying to defend a lost cause; or was he being ironic?
F. G. Grisley Barry, Glamorgan
Letter: It's a washout
Can anyone explain to me why, when a ‘non-fast’ colour washes out of
one garment and into another in a washing machine, it immediately becomes
‘fast’ in the recipient garment?
Moira Briggs Ravenglass, Cumbria
Letter: Ceausescu's fellowship
I fail to see the logic of the Registrar of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s
letter of 3 February. I had assumed that admission to fellowship of the
institute depended on scientific credentials alone. Now, if the society
in 1978 considered that Elena Ceausescu did indeed merit admission to fellowship
of the institute on the basis of her published work, then it has nothing
to be ashamed of. On the other hand, I do not see why the ceremony of admission
should be any different from that arranged for an ordinary citizen.
Having once admitted Elena Ceausescu as a fellow, why is it that the
society was considering removing her name in late December 1989? It seems
to me a rather dangerous precedent to exclude persons from the membership
of scientific societies on the basis of their moral character. Possibly
one might make an exception for dictators but in that case it would have
been rather more seemly to remove Elena Ceausescu’s name from the rolls
several years ago when she was still a powerful figure and not simply a
few days before her fall. Human rights abuses in Romania have been no secret
for years now.
Sebastian Hayes London SW18
Letter: Drawing the line
Whatever the cause of flooding in cities with coastal flood defences
or in coastal reclaimed lands, the risk could be greatly reduced by a simple
educational measure (‘Cities against the sea’, by Bill O’Neill, 3 February).
The risk could be understood better if it were universally agreed that a
blue line was painted on lamp posts, telegraph poles, trees, buildings,
at the level of the adjacent flood protection works. Visitors and people
living and working in areas of flood risk could guarantee their personal
safety in a flood by climbing a tree or going upstairs in a building.
People could be taught not to try to escape by road. There could be
notices everywhere that say ‘You are never more than 10 metres from safety:
climb up above the blue line and stay put until the flood subsides’. The
blue line should be set at the level to which the local defences have been
raised so that the people know the level to which they must climb. Once
the local defences around any area are overtopped that area will act as
a pool which can quite rapidly fill up to the blue line. The flood cannot
subsequently continue to rise as rapidly above the line.
In every city where the blue line was displayed, London and Leningrad,
Tokyo and Hamburg, the populations would be able to adjust their way of
life to ensure that they minimised their risks. Property values of premises
below the blue line would differ from those above. The cost of a flood has
different values associated with different separate pools of flooding. For
example, values in Westminster differ from values in Canvey Island. The
level to which the local defence works and the local blue line is raised
should differ according to the insurance risks. This is a matter of balancing
the present value of the risk of future loss against the cost of works to
reduce risk in each potential pool of flooding.
Investors and residents in any particular area will wish to know the
return period for floods which may fill their pool up to the blue line.
The present value of the risk of future loss can be reduced best by an informed
public making prudent decisions.
Andrew N. Schofield Department of Engineering University of Cambridge