Letter: Sense of direction
I am puzzled by this business of finding the direction of south by means
of a wristwatch (Letters, 10 February). I do not see what it has to do with
boy scouting.
When I joined the Cub Scouts in, I think, 1937, my father gave me a
magnetic compass. I did not own a timepiece of any kind then nor for many
years afterwards.
I have found the compass quite effective at indicating not only south
but north and other points, of which many more were learnt during my time
at sea.
Today, during my holidays, I use an ex-army compass bought in 1946 for
one shilling and there are many parts of the New Forest where it is wholly
reliable on a sunless day. My Databank wristwatch, meanwhile, stores the
telephone number I should dial if I happen to sink five metres down into
Crane Moor Bog or wherever. I feel that I am thus logically equipped for
a dozen miles stroll, but perhaps some of your more learned readers might
find deficiencies?
Robert Ormiston-Chant Manchester
Letter: Form of address
I can claim a shorter successful address than Alun Rees (Forum, 3 February):
six years ago ‘LLOYD CM5 OPL’ was sufficient to reach my parents who shared
that rural postcode with one other house.
Twenty-five years ago, when I was a small boy at boarding school, ‘Commodore
Lloyd, SINGAPORE’, also reached the required destination, although it was
counterstamped with nearly a dozen ‘unknown heres’ from the various military
bases.
In Sweden, all the addresses are both short and uniform: line one, NAME;
line two, STREET and NUMBER; line three, POSTCODE and TOWN. The regularity
must make it easier for their sorters.
Andrew T. Lloyd Newcastle upon Tyne
Letter: Form of address
Alun Rees’s article reminds me that police advice on security of moveable
property includes writing on it (in invisible ink) the unique code for any
address: the post code followed by the house number. The idea is that, on
recovery, the owner can easily be traced. Not so easy! Last year I tested
this by posting myself a letter from a small town about 8 miles away in
a different postal area from mine. It took nine weeks to arrive, and then
only after the letter had been opened to find my ‘proper’ address.
Three lines? What’s wrong (for postal purposes) with one line?
I. C. Hill MK44 2AS – 32
Letter: That sinking feeling
There is a story to the reported neglect of stability considerations
by the builders of the warship Wasa (‘Ships that sailed the seven seas’,
23/30 December). A booklet on sale at the exhibition site in Stockholm Harbour
recounts a stability test ordered by the admiral in charge of accepting
the ship for the navy. Thirty-five sailors were lined up along the port
railing and then told to run to the starboard railing. Immediately the ship
started tilting so strongly that the men were told to disperse and the test
was broken off without, apparently, any operative conclusions having been
drawn.
Rafael Blumenthal Kiriat Tivon Israel
Letter: Future of the NCC
Having had only nine months in it, Peter Bridgewater condemns the post
of Chief 杏吧原创 of the Nature Conservancy Council as a non-job and suggests
it be abolished (Forum, 10 February). As a one-time member of the Chief
杏吧原创’s team myself – for nine years – may I venture some comments on
his prognosis for the NCC.
Bridgewater comments that the NCC’s regions are under-resourced. True,
but the real problem is that the entire NCC is under-resourced. If the government
can find the money to fund the triplicated functions of a split-up NCC,
why can it not properly fund it intact? The reason, of course, is that the
split is political, and nothing to do with resources.
He suggests that the split is an opportunity to improve the total scientific
effort in conservation. True again, and likewise to integrate the NCC’s
work with that of other environmental agencies. But disintegrating the NCC
is a peculiar way to assist that process.
Bridgewater pins his faith on the government’s new-found ‘joint committee’
to paper over the cracks. This again ignores the basic reasons for the split,
namely the often embarrassing and inconvenient clash between the science
and the politics of nature conservation. Conservation science has three
essential components: first, research per se (including survey and monitoring);
secondly, interpreting the findings; and thirdly, converting them into relevant
practical action – in the case of the NCC, most notably the designation
and defence of sites of special scientific interest.
Step 3 is where the clash with politics most often arises, but even
steps 1 and 2 are not immune. Unless given independent statutory powers
over the whole of this three-part process, the joint committee can expect
no more success in preserving its coherence than central government has
in directing wayward local authorities. But in the case of the NCC, the
removal of central control over local conservation practice is precisely
what motivates the split. What real future, therefore, has the joint committee?
The NCC never fully recovered from losing its research arm in 1973, the
last time science was thought to need severing from conservation practice.
But it refused to die from this treatment. Surgery has once again been prescribed
when the patient has shown too much vigour for the liking of vested interests
who expect to exploit the countryside unimpeded.
Art N. Lance Director, Conservation Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds
Letter: Cosmic coincidences
I was most intrigued by John Gribbin and Martin Rees’s exposition of
the extraordinarily unlikely set of nuclear energy level conditions required
for the stellar formation of elements essential to our existence (‘Cosmic
coincidences’, 13 January). No doubt many readers will view these revelations
(originated by Fred Hoyle with the help of Willy Fowler) as an affirmation
that we exist by design and not by chance. I wonder how many faltering religious
faiths are now being rekindled as a result? I might personally have been
counted as a convert were it not for what I consider to be an equally plausible
non-anthropic implication of these ‘cosmic coincidences’.
This pivots upon the supposition that the big bang is an infinitely
cyclic event, each one followed by an expansion and then a contraction of
the universe back to a singularity – a possibility which I believe is considered
highly likely by many leading cosmologists. On the basis of this reasonable
assumption, my contention is: we have no certainty on each occasion the
universe reinflates that the physical make up of the ensuing universe, at
nuclear level and above, is identical to the previous. Taking an ‘all change’
view of physical constants at each of the infinite number of big bangs,
it is entirely conceivable, therefore, that the ‘magic’ combination of nuclear
energy levels within the helium nucleus, together with its lowly fusion-generated
daughter products, necessary for the creation of the heavier elemental building
bricks of life, would eventually occur by chance within one and the same
cycle.
Vaughan Stone ARK Geophysics Milton Keynes
Letter: Toxic plants
In her excellent article on malnutrition, Cathy Read pointed out that
the disorder in children known as kwashiorkor, which used to be considered
due to malnutrition, especially to the dietary deficiency of proteins in
the developing countries, may actually be caused by fungal toxins which
cause liver damage, or free radicals (‘Behind the face of malnutrition,’
17 February).
Toxic agents present in plants, which are used in the Third World as
herbal medicines, have also to be considered. Such plants, for example,
ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), are known to cause liver disease in livestock
that consume it, and had been suggested as contributing to kwashiorkor even
in the 1950s. The effects which the toxic constituents of such plants, known
as pyrrolizidine alkaloids, induce in experimental animals can be seen in
a film, made at the MRC Toxicology Unit, Carshalton, by myself and R. F.
Legg in the 1960s. Avoiding the use of such toxic plants by women during
pregnancy and lactation would go a long way in the prevention of kwashiorkor
in children, and of liver cancer in later life, in areas in which these
disorders are common.
R. Schoental Royal Veterinary College London NW1
Letter: Sick trees
Your ‘In brief’ correspondent reports the creation of a scientific task
force to review the health of Britain’s trees (This Week, 17 February).
The report also states that this initiative, taken by the Department of
the Environment, is a snub to the Forestry Commission. The fact that the
Forestry Commission has two members on the group is not mentioned, nor that
the commission welcomes an objective look at tree health studies. The chairman
of the group (Professor Mike Unsworth) is well known and respected by Forestry
Commission scientists. We look forward to participating in the work of the
task force and giving the group free access to a wide variety of survey
information on forest health.
D. A. Burdekin Director of Research Forestry Commission