Letter: Third World science
Nina Hall’s profile of Abdus Salam (‘A unifying force for Third World
science’, 27 January) highlighted the success of the International Centre
for Theoretical Physics which he founded in Trieste 25 years ago, and the
benefits the ICTP has brought to science in the Third World, due in no small
measure to the generosity of the Italian government.
Readers may be interested to learn that an International Mathematics
Institute is being planned in Edinburgh following the suggestion of Professor
Salam and owing much to the example of the ICTP. The institute will be a
world centre for research in the mathematical sciences, fostering links
with science, engineering, industry, commerce and other areas. It will devote
a significant proportion of its resources to bringing mathematicians from
developing countries to Edinburgh on extended visits, thereby providing
them with vital links to researchers throughout the world.
The planned institute is the result of a partnership between the University
of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University and has the enthusiastic and active
support of the City of Edinburgh, the Scottish Development Agency, all Scottish
universities and polytechnics, and the ICTP.
The success of this project depends largely, of course, on securing
a sound financial base. The prospects for obtaining support for fellowships
for visiting mathematicians are already promising. The organisers are now
exploring ways of raising sufficient capital to make Salam’s idea of an
Institute in Edinburgh a reality.
John Ball Professor of Mathematics Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh
Letter: Third World science
Those of us from Third World countries currently acquiring skills in
developed countries and who are committed to a future of research in our
home countries can identify with many of Abdus Salam’s convictions. The
concept of several international centres of excellence along the lines of
the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste is long overdue.
In addition, difficult and unattractive though it may be, scientists
from developed countries should consider spending a period of research and
teaching in Third World countries. It is often easy for them to take along
perfectly functioning equipment which has been replaced in their home countries
in favour of the latest state of the art. Such interaction requires the
support of international bodies such as UNESCO.
Continuing interaction, exchange of ideas and visits between developed
and developing countries is essential in encouraging Third World scientific
research in addition to ensuring that regional problems such as tropical
rainforest research receive greater attention.
Third World scientific research has great potential provided the necessary
encouragement is provided.
A. O. Adebajo Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge
Letter: Woods and trees
There is no need for conflict, in terms of practical woodland management,
between the alternative views of the value of coppice proposed by C. Hambler
and R. S. Key (Letters, 27 January and 17 February).
For most of the century, British forest policy – driven first by strategic
and later by rather spurious economic arguments – has concentrated on simplicity
rather than diversity of management. It is the consequent lack of diversity
in British forests and woodlands that is perhaps the essence of most discontent
with contemporary forestry in this country. Woodlands managed according
to diverse regimes are a better way forward.
B. J. Kanowski Lecturer in Forest Policy University of Oxford
Letter: Bard's life
I found Lance Fogan’s claims of Shakespeare’s medical knowledge unconvincing
(‘The neurologist of Avon’, 20 January). Of the many references he quotes,
only three show the inside knowledge of the specialist. The vast majority
are merely descriptions of symptoms that are open for all to observe. We
can all appreciate Lafeu’s ‘Mine eyes smell onions.’ To say Shakespeare
‘links the sense of smell with the autonomic nervous system’ no more enhances
Shakespeare’s genius than do the Eng Lit folk who call the same effect synaesthesia;
such jargon only obscures a simple and effective leap of the imagination.
As for the porter’s observations of the more notorious effects of alcohol,
Timon’s of syphilitic symptoms, Shakespeare’s of senility in King Lear;
accurate, vivid, imaginative, but evidence of great life, not great learning.
It is not so much what he sees, but what he makes of what he sees that should
impress us.
Richard Marriott Newcastle upon Tyne
Letter: Design of textiles
I wish to draw attention to some inaccuracies and omissions in Jonathan
Beard’s article ‘Computers weave a new fashion’ (10 February).
In the first instance you show a photograph of the AVL CAD/CAM Textile
Design System installed at the Tootal Group and the caption implies wrongly
that this system belongs to one of our competitors.
Secondly, the article fails to mention that the CAD system used by Tootal
Fabrics, which is very well described and detailed in the article, is the
AVL CAD/CAM system.
Lastly, the article states that the competitor’s system ‘. . . includes
a $75 000 printer; the printer in the AVL package costs $) and the other
(which you also describe well and in great detail) is the dye sublimation
DuPont 4CAST printer (including software) for Pounds sterling 49 000. Just
to set the record straight, AVL is the only CAD/CAM system in textiles that
offers the 4CAST printer to industry and this is used by Tootal Fabrics.
C. van Doorn AVL, Macclesfield
Letter: Words and music
Discussing melody, Denys Parsons (Letters, 3 February) cites opera,
but neither he nor Graham Pont (‘Geography and human song’, 20 January)
considers the relationship between song and words. Linguistically, their
corpus contains three distinct populations.
(1) Songs in tone languages.
In these, widespread in Southest Asia and West Africa, relative contrasts
of pitch are inherent in each word and any utterance offers a ready-made
tune (‘Chinese singsong’) which a composer may enhance but not violate.
Openings are likely to be a linguistic artefact – some West African languages,
for instance, give nouns a falling outline and verbs a rising one. Here
language undoubtedly shapes music.
(2) Songs in intonation languages, as in Europe. Pitch in these belongs
to the group and is primarily decided by the sentence structure. There is
no necessity for tune to follow intonation, though there is some evidence
that it may do so; we do not know. If it does, linguistic accident again
intervenes. Intonation systems are highly language-specific and complex.
By and large English offers down-drifting jagged intonations and French
smooth-rising ones, but it depends. If a French songwriter wonders where
her wandering boy is tonight, the tune will be down down; if all she wants
to know is does he love her still, it will be up up. English, of course,
does it differently.
(3) Instrumental music without text, where there can be no direct language
influence at all.
The intonation systems of the major European languages are well understood,
and linguistic analysis of lyrics and libretti would show whether the openings
of melodies are choice or linguistic chance, though it is likely to prove
a complex matter. Meanwhile, 1 and 2 are chalk and cheese, if not red herring.
Eric Clavering Atherstone, Warwickshire
Letter: Viking's tale
The reconstruction of past climate using proxy data, be it from documentary,
historical records, or other types of evidence, is a delicate operation,
and full of traps for the unwary. In the case of historical records, it
is essential for a researcher to have a thorough knowledge and understanding
of the original sources from which the data are drawn.
In their article ‘Climate and history: the Westvikings’ saga’ (20 January),
John and Mary Gribbin mar what could have been a good story by a lack of
appreciation of the difficulties involved in using historical material as
a source of climate data. To list all of the misunderstandings related to
the nature of the sources quoted would take too long. However, one example
may be appropriate.
The possible attempted settlement in Iceland by Floki Vilgeroarson around
AD 865 is referred to in a work known as Landnamabok (the Book of Settlements).
This unique work concerns the land claims of the early settlers to Iceland.
It is not a ‘saga’. The origins and transcription of the manuscripts which
make up Landnamabok and, indeed, the Floki episode itself, are extremely
complex. To begin with, Landnamabok is not thought to have been compiled
until, at very earliest, some 200 years after Floki is said to have visited
Iceland. The episode regarding Floki was probably not added until much later;
possibly not until the latter part of the 13th century. Some 400 years after
the supposed event! The Floki episode, although extremely interesting, cannot
be relied upon as a true historical account. Even if it were, it is clear
from the account that the reason that Floki’s livestock died was because
he had spent the summer fishing, and had neglected to gather any winter
fodder for them, not necessarily because the winter was unduly severe. The
weather during the winter is not mentioned. The spring is said to have been
‘rather cold’. Before returning to Norway, it is written that Floki climbed
up a high mountain, whereupon he saw a fjord full of sea ice. ‘Because of
this,’ the account continues, ‘they called the country Iceland.’
In the article it is stated ‘Ironically, this is just about the last
mention of sea ice near Iceland for 300 years.’ This statement is misleading.
For one thing, the Floki episode was probably written at about the same
time as subsequent references to sea ice in the 13th century. For another,
the reason that there are no accounts of sea ice ‘for 300 years’ may be
attributed to the fact that there are no contemporary writings available
per se until around the early 13th century.
The article continues with the statement that Floki arrived in Iceland
‘as we now know from the record in the ice cores . . . at the end of a run
of cold decades in the middle of the little optimum’. In fact, we know no
such thing. Whether or not the isotopic record from Greenland ice cores
gives a reliable indication of temperature changes on a decadal time scale
is not known. Certainly, the isotope data are inadequate for this purpose
on the interannual time scale, since the oxygen-18/temperature correlations
are low. Furthermore, it is questionable to what extent climatic variations
based on ice cores taken from various sites in Greenland are applicable
to the Iceland region.
By adopting a rigorous approach, the study of historical climatology
has gained much credibility as a discipline, and its value is widely recognised.
Articles like that of the Gribbins do the discipline a disservice.
A. E. J. Ogilvie Climatic Research Unit University of East Anglia
Letter: Stewed bed bugs
In 1944, in what is now Kerala in South India, we lived a simpler life
than the later National Servicemen with their foam rubber mattresses and
toasted bed bugs (Letters, 17 February). We had our bugs stewed. Our beds
were the traditional charpoy, a simple wooden frame with rope webbing; a
potential haven for bed bugs. But in Wellesley Barracks there was a great
cauldron in which our beds were periodically boiled, and remarkably effective
it was. Although I got my bed roll infested in a transit camp, never in
barracks nor under canvas did bed bugs cause trouble.
Possibly one of the modern compact steam-jet devices, such as are used
for cleaning car engines in situ, might prove effective and residue-free
in treating badly infested dwellings and furniture. Perhaps it has been
tried and found impracticable: it would certainly strip the wallpaper, though
in pursuit of bugs this would be no bad thing.
Reginald Titt Salisbury
Letter: Overseas aid
I was, of course, delighted that your magazine gave some prominence
to the recent report by the House of Lords’ Science and Technology Select
Committee on overseas aid (Comment and This week, 17 February).
I was, however, surprised that you quoted Frank Almond, Chief Executive
of the Intermediate Technology Development Group, to the effect that the
report ‘fails to recognise the importance of indigenous science and technology
capacity’.
Such recognition is a main theme of our report. In paragraphs 4.7-4.8
we say: ‘The Committee consider that ‘institution building’ – contributing
to the strengthening and support of a local S&T infrastructure in a
developing country – is one of the most worthwhile ways in which S&T
aid can be applied. Only with such an infrastructure, and with improved
management of science and technology, can a developing country hope to identify
its problems and find solutions . . . (The Committee) strongly recommend
that support for and encouragement of S&T institutions in developing
countries should be accorded higher priority in the United Kingdom aid programme.’
Paragraph 9.8 says: ‘The extent to which the United Kingdom aid programme
contributes to building local capability is the true measure of its success.’
Caldecote House of Lords
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