Letter: French lesson
Feedback is right to take Microsoft to task for not knowing when to
write ‘complement’ or ‘compliment’ (16 March). But Michael Kenward should
know that it is coup de grace, not coupe de grace (‘A close look at fusion’,
Review, 16 March). Coupe is cup; coup is blow. Is that Microsoft’s fault
too?
Elizabeth Young London
Letter: Warming accuracy
I was very interested in the comments of William Nierenberg in ‘Global
warming: look before we leap’ (Talking Point, 9 March). The article seems
to be an interesting mix of rebuttal (of John Gribbin’s article of 15 December
1990) and rather imprecise arguments in support of Nierenberg’s own viewpoint.
Both the imprecision and the implied conclusions are troubling in their
own ways.
The most remarkable imprecision is Nierenberg’s reference to the ‘precision’
of satellite measurements of surface temperature. As director emeritus of
an institution of oceanography, he must surely be aware of the technical
difference between precision and accuracy. A precision of plus or minus
0.01 oC has no bearing on the measurement of global warming over time without
data on the calibration of the instruments.
How are these instruments calibrated? How often? Are they calibrated
against the Earth itself? How do they correct for changing surface and atmospheric
conditions? The accuracy of the measurements is the important point, not
the precision.
An implication that troubles me a great deal is that the president of
the US has sufficient scientific resources at his disposal to dispense with
independent scientific advice. It is remarkable that the last president
had these same resources at his disposal when he concluded that acid rain
was caused by coniferous trees. Politicians are most notorious, not for
buying scientific research but for buying the conclusions.
Nierenberg seems to believe that the economic impact of measures for
controlling carbon dioxide emissions would be more significant than that
of global warming itself. This seems a very short-sighted view indeed.
Stephen Abbott Oro Station Ontario, Canada
Letter: By George
By what seems to be a remarkable coincidence, two different contributors
have referred to the celebrated British mathematician, G. H. Hardy, as ‘George’
Hardy (William Bown, ‘Mind dances’, Review, 16 February and Arturo Sangalli,
‘The burden of proof is on the computer’, 23 February).
Hardy’s given names were Godfrey, Harold (see any biography). I know
of no evidence that he was nicknamed George; indeed, I think it unlikely
that anybody but his relatives addressed him by his first name. The coincidence
seems too great for pure chance. Is there a corrupted source somewhere?
Felix Arscott University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada
Letter: Exhausting search
Over the past year a number of auxiliary devices for car engines have
been marketed claiming such environmentally desirable qualities as allowing
older cars to run on unleaded petrol and bringing about significant reductions
in emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Among the names used to
market these devices are Powerplus, Carbonflo, Fuelmaster, En-Tec and Sonox.
A number of our members have enquired about the reliability of such
claims. Not only do we not know whether they are a con or a godsend, but
neither do the handful of qualified experts we consult on scientific matters.
Do you or your readers know of any independent and reliable testing
carried out on any of these products that could give some indication of
whether the claims are well founded? Our telephone number is 081 666 0445.
Chris Bowers Environmental Transport Association Croydon
Letter: Water studies
I wish to take issue with some of the content of Fred Pearce’s article
‘Africa at a watershed’ (23 March). Pearce has distorted facts given to
him to present a controversial picture. The Sahelian drought in the Lake
Chad Basin did not start in 1962 as Pearce suggests; it was 1972, the year
of the severe drought which spanned the whole of the African continent,
and focused the world on the plight of Ethiopia. The feasibility studies
for the South Chad Irrigation Project had been largely completed by then.
The hydrological studies carried out by my company, Mott MacDonald,
extended over a period of three months, not the three weeks quoted by Pearce.
The three weeks covered the field work for stage one. Two additional stages
were also undertaken in which the hydrology was updated. The length of studies
is defined by the clients, not the consultants. It is a commonly heard complaint
among consultancy firms that the time spent on studies is being reduced
to dangerous levels. Generally, in the last 25 years the time allocated
to feasibility work has been halved and in some cases reduced even more.
In 1972, Lake Chad was at average water levels, typical of those existing
between 1905 and 1955, though lower than the ‘Great Chad’ seen in the early
1950s and much earlier by 19th-century explorers. The Sahelian drought had
not arrived; certainly no hydrologist or crystal ball gazer could have predicted
the sequence of drought years which unfolded and which have now lasted for
20 years.
Contrary to Pearce’s statement that nobody can tell if the change in
the region’s rainfall is a mere aberration or connected to the greenhouse
effect, there is, and has been for more than four years, substantial evidence
that global warming is the likely cause. I am quoted as saying that the
scheme has been a disaster; it is the Sahelian drought that is the disaster,
not the scheme. The scheme was competently designed and constructed.
Other inaccuracies abound. The Kariba Dam had produced a thriving fishing
industry, increasing yields massively and not reducing them as suggested.
On a more general note one might add that without the Aswan Dam, Egypt would
have suffered the ravages of the Sahelian drought over the past two decades.
As it was, Egypt has come through unscathed.
The real problem facing African water resources is not poor engineering
design and unscrupulous consultants but the predicted doubling of its population
in the next 25 years. But this does not make for such dramatic reading,
or provide scapegoats that journalists can pillory from the safety of their
armchairs.
Terry Evans Mott MacDonald Group Cambridge
Letter: Building blocks
Your article on our thought-provoking exhibit at the Ideal Home Exhibition
missed one interesting point (‘A roof over your head for 拢100’, Technology,
23 March). Although Intermediate Technology often does play a major role
in developing appropriate technologies for the Third World, in the case
of the wall blocks and roofing tiles we did not.
The facts are even more interesting. The fibre-reinforced roofing tiles
owe most to the innovation and commercial development of the production
equipment by a small British company, Parry Associates. Small businesses
are setting up in large numbers overseas to produce cheap, durable roofing
tiles, proving an often neglected lesson; that the combination of a product
that customers want (even poor ones) with an appropriate production process
is a winning one.
Frank Almond Intermediate Technology Rugby, Warwickshire
Letter: Building blocks
I have been teaching my pupils about the finite nature of soils and
telling them that a good farm soil takes in excess of 5000 years to form
and that each year the world loses 7 per cent of its soil covering, and
so on. Then I read an article that suggests using soil as a building material.
Once the top soil has been removed the less permeable subsoil will be
exposed leading to rapid runoff and more soil erosion. In turn, this will
mean more water lost from the environment, another scarce and vital resource.
As for the proposed savings on local trees, which will not fire kilns used
to make bricks, no soil means no trees. Besides, trees replace themselves
at a much faster rate than soil.
I have no doubt that in much the same way as water is a recurring issue
at present, soil will enjoy ‘prime time coverage’ as a major environmental
issue.
Philip Bradley American International School Nice, France
Letter: Antarctic debate
Richard Laws’s belief that whispers by the Antarctic and Southern Ocean
Coalition caused the governments of France and Australia and, more recently,
several others to jettison the Convention for the Regulation of Antarctic
Minerals Resources Activities in favour of a policy of permanent protection
for Antarctica is, frankly, ridiculous (Talking Point, 30 March).
All the proposals for an Antarctic World Park include the idea of banning
mining and mineral exploration and several possible existing treaty structures
already exist to accommodate that. Laws has given no reason why more bureaucracy
would arise to govern a World Park than to administer CRAMRA. None of the
park proposals contain any hint of impediments to scientific research, though
there is a well-founded sense abroad that scientists should not be exempt,
as they have been from general requirements to remove their rubbish and
wastes from the continent; a matter of principle and the image of science
are involved, rather than relative scales of impact.
We all know that future generations can overturn arrangements made by
the present one, but Laws offers no reasons why it would be more difficult
to defend a park than the environmental provisions of CRAMRA against future
demands for exploitation. I suggest the former would be easier because one
or more intervening generations will have got used to the idea that a place
was sacrosanct rather than merely subject to development rules which would
be likely to be circumvented anyway.
Sidney Holt Rome Italy
Letter: Brain atlas
Our chances of exploring the complicated and so far rigorously concealed
‘machinery of the mind’ and understanding how it works have increased enormously
due to recent advances in nuclear medicine and brain imaging techniques.
Therefore, one must welcome the initiative taken by American scientists
to launch a joint project to create a large scale computerised database
that ‘should do for the brain what the human genome project will do for
our DNA’ (‘Neuroscientists plan ‘atlas’ of the brain’, 9 February).
The prospect of having an atlas of brain maps displaying the whereabouts
in the brain of various ‘activity centres’ has been discussed by neuroscientists
for some time. From the article, however, one gets the impression that the
idea has emerged quite recently, and that the tools needed to construct
such an atlas are perhaps only available in North America.
In fact, a project with the same objective was started in Sweden more
than 10 years ago as a joint venture between the Karolinska Institute and
Stockholm University. Since then our computerised atlas has been under continuous
development; today, its database contains more than 350 brain structures,
as compared to the 120 structures of the Montreal atlas.
It is also stated that the ‘Canadian scientists have already made some
progress by overlaying 16 horizontal brain sections, produced by magnetic
resonance imaging, with a cerebral map’. Facilities for such an operation,
including the optional display of any structure boundaries in any plane
through the image volume, have been available with the Stockholm atlas for
several years.
Torgny Greitz Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden
Letter: Shock treatment
Your interesting article ‘A war of nerves’ contained a lot of forgotten
but highly relevant history (9 March). It included some errors of detail.
My name was mentioned in connection with army psychiatry during the Second
World War. However, I personally did not use sodium amytal for purposes
of ‘abreaction’, though other clinicians did.
Secondly, in connection with the First World War, mention was made of
a psychotherapist (not psychiatrist), the late Millais Culpin. I knew him
well for many years. I can state with confidence that he did not ‘develop
a technique in which soldiers were given an injection of sodium amytal’.
He used quite different, and purely psychological methods.
Stephen MacKeith Winchester Hampshire
Letter: Eyes right
Your article describing the plastic implant that may provide a cure
for glaucoma, as developed by the far-sighted Robert Ritch, displays an
incorrect diagram of the eye (Technology, 16 March). The sclera should have
borne the label of the conjunctiva, and vice versa.
S. Welch Bristol
Letter: Water course
Andy Coghlan repeats the idea that water courses are being ‘choked by
nitrogenous and phosphorus fertilisers and agricultural waste’ (‘Europe
plans for cleaner water’, 16 March). Fertiliser phosphorus combines strongly
with soil and enters water courses only as a result of erosion. Most phosphorus
in water comes from sewage and animal wastes. Very little nitrogen fertiliser
is carried away by water; most either enters the crop or replaces that used
from the soil store. This soil store provides 90 to 99 per cent of the nitrate
in water.
Denis Hardwick Fertiliser Manufacturers Association Peterborough, Cambridgeshire