Letter: Best behaviour
John Durant’s article on B F Skinner was more balanced and generous
than many pieces which have appeared in the British press since Skinner’s
death. For this reason, in particular, some of the distortions in Durant’s
account should be noted briefly (‘End of a behaviourist dream’, Forum, 22
September).
First, it is tendentious to claim that Skinner advocated ‘treating people
as elaborate stimulus-response machines’. Although his account of behaviour
was deterministic (a feature which is after all central to scientific thought),
it focused largely on complex probabilistic relationships between what we
do (and what we experience) and our social surroundings, largely as influenced
selectively by the consequences of our previous actions.
Second, Skinner did not believe that ‘the entire world of mental life
(should be) excluded from any place in the explanation of human conduct’
(how could anybody be so crass?). Skinner did, however, resist the view
that such ‘private events’ are somehow the autonomous causes of what we
do, interpreting them instead (like our behaviour) as the outcomes of our
interactions with others. Durant’s belief that Skinner’s doctrine ‘cannot
explain simple encounters in a life’ (because how we react to somebody stepping
on our toes is affected by how we interpret the incident) is ill-directed,
for Skinner would not have denied this, although he would have gone on to
ask what consequences for our actions in the past had led to our interpretation
of the current incident.
D E Blackman University of Wales Cardiff
Letter: Off your bike
A M Jordan thinks toe-straps are not dangerous for cyclists (Letters,
25 August). I know by experiment that they are potentially lethal. I have
been thrown over my handlebars twice in the past year. The first time, being
attached to the bicycle by toe-straps, I described a circle round the front
axle like a pencil round a compass point, landing on my head with distressing
consequences. The second time I sailed forward and landed on all fours like
a cat, unhurt and even exhilerated.
Philip Steward Oxford
Letter: Green flare
Our proposal to reduce emmissions of greenhouse gases from North Sea
production platforms by reduced flaring, and replacing inefficient gas turbines
with Norwegian hydropower, received an unexpected rebuke (This Week, 15
September). It is difficult to see how the reported views of the spokesman
for the DOE and Brian Taylor, technical director of the UK Offshore Operations’
Association, tally with the environmental responsibility that is expected
from enlightened parts of the British oil industry.
Our study on greenhouse gas reduction measures shows how reduced flaring
can be achieved if nitrogen is used instead of hydrocarbon gas for the purging
of flare stacks. This is more than just the pilot gas, which is relatively
insignificant. Other sources (deartor, blanket gas, sumps and so on) can
also be replaced with nitrogen. In addition, improved process control and
administrative measures from the authorities should reduce the total flaring
to an appropriate level, in emergencies and at shutdown.
Brian Taylor seems to be unaware that continuous nitrogen purging for
the flare system has been common practice for almost a decade on the Frigg
field. The investment to convert nitrogen purging on Frigg had a pay-back
time of less than one year.
Another bone of contention was the power loss during the transport of
electric power to offshore installations. For such applications high voltage,
direct-current technology only represents a loss of 2 per cent including
conversion losses, in contrast to the energy loss of 75 per cent in the
gas turbines used for power production today.
Torleif Holt, Erik Lindeberg Continental Shelf and Petroleum Technology
Research Institute Trondheim Norway
Letter: Perchance to dream
Apparent precognitions in dreams cannot be dismissed as easily as Susan
Blackmore does (‘The lure of the paranormal,’ 22 September). If a dream
is followed by a real event which seems to confirm it, and if the coincidence
is merely chance, then the interval between the dream and the event should
be random. In fact, it is always found that the interval tends to be short.
If a number of cases are brought together they show a definite pattern,
peaking strongly on the day after the dream and falling away to near zero
in an asymptotic curve. This cannot possibly be due to chance.
Most collections of dreams are anecdotal, and it could be argued that
the effect is due to forgetfulness of the dreams if the corresponding event
does not happen soon after. However, a few experiments have been made in
which a series of dreams was written down immediately after waking and compared
to subsequent events. These show much the same pattern. In one such experiment,
1444 dreams were recorded; 62 apparent precognitions were found, and of
these 30 occurred on the day after the dream.
This work was done a long time ago, but I am prepared to bet any reasonable
amount that a new experiment, if properly carried out, would confirm the
effect. Would Susan Blackmore care to try?
C F Dalton Dun Laoghaire Ireland
Letter: Space sexist
I am a 16-year-old A-level student who I am sure was not alone in my
disgust at a comment made by Tony Jones in his article ‘Yellow companion
to space’ (Review, 1 September). He says: ‘Many people, especially women,
find space exploration irrelevant and even a little distatesful.’ I am not
a feminist but feel this comment was not only unnecessary but also wrong.
I myself attended a European space school, held at Brunel University
this summer. There were 135 students of whom half were female. Therefore,
I am adamant in saying that just as many females are interested in space
as males. It is just that they are not given an equal opportunity to become
involved.
How can space be any more irrelevant to females? As for being distasteful,
that is a matter of opinion, not a matter of your sex.
Nicola Adams Stourbridge West Midlands
Letter: Alive and kicking
While we welcome the complimentary remarks made by P E M Allen in his
letter of 22 September, readers may have concluded that polymer science
at the University of Lancaster has ceased to exist. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The Lancaster polymer centre is now a flourishing division
of the school of physics and materials.
Through the polymer centre and institute of biological and environmental
sciences the university continues to offer an honours degree course in chemistry
with polymer science and the chemical sciences/USA course, which is a full
honours degree course in chemistry with the second year spent in a prestigious
chemistry department in the US.
D J Hourston, J R Ebdon The Polymer Centre University of Lancaster
Letter: Cutting red tape
It must surely be the height of irony that Jon Turney should describe
the Royal Society’s new research grants scheme as being a ‘cumbersome apparatus,’
for it was the society’s stated intention to minimise both the bureaucracy
and the load on assessors (‘End of the peer show?’, 22 September). To those
ends applicants are required to make submissions on just two sides of paper,
the applications are almost wholly processed by computer at all stages,
and the task of assessment spread across some 60 fellows (mainly by correspondence),
so that decisions can be reached rapidly and fairly but still by those knowledgeable
in the field.
The society believes that review by one’s scientific peers remains the
best available system of assessment. Its cost, in this case, from paper
clips to computers and from staff salaries to assessors’ expenses is barely
more than 50,000 Pounds from a total sum of 2 million Pounds available from
the scheme.
Turney also referred to the society’s Philosophical Transactions. While
proud to publish the world’s longest running scientific journals, we cannot
yet claim Transactions to be 400 years old. They were, in fact, started
in 1665.
B K Follett Vice President and Biological Secretary Royal Society London
Letter: Duty-free ozone
Would it help to repair and strengthen the ozone layer if every airliner
on a flight had to carry a certain amount of bottled ozone which would be
released into the stratosphere when the aircraft reached the appropriate
height? It would be simple justice if airliners could be used to repair
some of the damage they cause.
Alec Vans Newnham Gloucestershire
Letter: Out of place
Your Review section carried a photograph referring to ‘Salisbury research
base at Woomera, Australia’ (25 August). As one who worked at both Salisbury
and Woomera in 1962, I have to tell you that they are about 400 kilometres
apart as the Covair flies.
Roger Watters Alice Springs Australia
Letter: Empty promise
I would like to respond to the comments of Martin Rechsteiner in Talking
Point (‘The folly of the human genome project’, 15 September). There is
much criticism of the project at the moment. The criticism is justifiable
on the basis of information currently in the public domain as to the possible
benefits of the project. But the US does not allocate $200 million a year
to project areas on whim. There is a very good reason for the human genome
project.
Rechsteiner says, ‘Many people believe that more than 95 per cent of
our DNA is junk, gibberish, nonsense. In my view, it is there simply to
space important stretches of DNA that encode the proteins making up our
bodies. I see no pressing reason to sequence this ‘spacer DNA’.’ This is
wrong. This space DNA has an important functional significance in morphogenesis.
It codes algorithms in a natural genetic computing language. NGCL operators
self-execute when coded as RNA.
The existence of the NGCL has been known for nearly 15 years. For the
military it has a special importance in the selective targeting of biological
weapons. In the past 10 years much computer analysis of NGCL structure has
occurred. Simpler operator types/functions have been derived from study
of known virus genome leader sequences and their morphogenic role in capsid
construction. Other operators have been identified in studies of sequenced
regions of more sophisticated organisms.
Recently, NGCL development has stalled because of a lack of raw data
for computer analysis; hence the human genome project. Contrary to suggestions
by Rechsteiner, the project, through its implications for elucidation of
some of the more complex NGCL operators, has major implications for the
therapeutic medicine, particularly in the area of cancer.
Andrew Crowe Brisbane Queensland Australia