Letters: Harry was there
Norris McWhirter may possibly have it wrong about Baird’s first television
experiments (Letters, 22 June). In 1974 one Harry W. Crisp, who then lived
at South Ascot, confided to me that it was he who made Baird’s apparatus
and that he was present at the first tests. Harry told how he had been an
apprentice at a cinematographic shop in Soho when this odd customer came
in and asked if some machinery could be made. Harry was assigned the job
and made the equipment, the same that stands on view at the Kensington Science
Museum, with an assortment of bicycle parts, lenses and cardboard. I have
no verification of this story. It is probable that the gentleman himself
would have died some time ago. Perhaps this may jog the memory of some other
reader who may be able to throw further light on the claim.
L. R. Newsome St Lucia Queensland, Australia
Letters: Hit that planet
Has anyone considered this possible explanation for ‘impossible’ Mercury’s
improbable magnetic field? (‘Mercury, the impossible planet’, 1 June).
If a bar of soft iron is aligned with the Earth’s magnetic field and
struck smartly with a hammer, it becomes weakly magnetised. On a grander
scale, take one small planet with a solid iron core, place it within the
Sun’s magnetic field and strike it smartly with a large asteroid (the Wetherill
scenario). The result: a weakly magnetised planet without the need to invoke
a molten interior.
Mark Stock Kings Norton, Birmingham
Letters: Flooded forecourts
In reply to Graham Chambers on the subject of locking triggers on petrol
delivery hoses (Letters, 22 June) – yes, they do exist in England, but seemingly
at random.
I always test the trigger to see if it locks, as I gain a certain amount
of satisfaction from being able to amble around the forecourt whilst refilling
the tank. However, I have found no set pattern between the petrol companies
or filling stations. Esso, Amoco and BP have some with the locking trigger
and some without. It seems to be a local phenomenon confined to the whim
of a particular garage.
My nightmare thought is that the automatic ‘kick off’ device which operates
when the trigger is locked may one day fail to operate, thus flooding the
forecourt whilst my attention is diverted. My advice is to remain within
suitable running distance!
D. A. Seymour Burnham-on-Sea Somerset
Letters: Flat batteries
My science teacher, Ron Cowels, and I have discovered a way to find
out how flat batteries are. As batteries are used, hydrogen is released
from the electrolyte which makes the batteries lighter. So a new battery
is about 10 grams heavier than a dead battery,
So you weigh the batteries and the heavy ones work and the light ones
don’t.
Gary Judd Breckenbrough School, Thirsk, North Yorks
Letters: Obelix
The article on the standing stones at Carnac (This Week, 15 June) reminded
me of a visit there with my family, a few years ago. While we walked among
the stones, musing on their purpose, my son Philip asked: ‘is this not near
to where Asterix the Gaul lived?’
When we agreed that it was quite close, he went on: ‘Well, it’s obvious
then. The Gauls were afraid the sky would fall on their heads and they put
up the stones to protect themselves.’
John Rae Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire
Letters: Diet and cancer
In Talking Point (22 June) Ann Oakley asks: ‘Where then is the research
on diet and breast cancer?’
The World Cancer Research Fund has this week invited applications for
grants of up to 拢25 000 for research into the links between diet
and cancer.
We would be pleased to hear from any of your readers with an interest
in the subject.
Peter Petts World Cancer Research Fund London
Letters: Diet and cancer
Ann Oakley suggests ‘natural’ alternatives in the fight to prevent breast
cancer. But early motherhood is not always practicable. Another suggestion
might be to ‘let them eat garlic’, since, according to Aisling Irwin’s report
in the same issue (Science, 22 June), ‘we have solid evidence that it leads
to aspects of cancer prevention’. As the partner of a breast cancer patient,
I for one am prepared to take the consequences!
K. J. Goodare Horsham, West Sussex
Letters: Repulsive behaviour
Gareth Rees and Brian Robinson wrote a fascinating article on surface
chemistry (‘Designer solvents for clever chemistry’, 25 May). As this is
science, may I correct one small detail?
The ‘hydrophobic’ tails of surfactant molecules are not in fact repelled
by water – any more than nature abhors a vacuum, or electricity flows from
positive to negative, or holes are attracted to the cathode of a pnp transistor.
(There are in fact no repulsive forces operating at these intermolecular
distances.)
The paraffin side chains behave as though they were repelled by water
because, although they are weakly attracted to water molecules, the attraction
is much weaker than the attraction of water molecules for each other. The
aliphatic chains are thus ‘crowded out’, and have no choice but to stay
together. Perhaps a useful analogy is that oil floats, not because its molecules
are free from gravity’s pull, but because the attraction downwards is weaker
than for the water molecules.
A. C. Carr Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Letters: An unripe story
Ariadne’s musings on crop circles reveal that he/she is not in full
possession of the facts on this matter (29 June). Circle making does not
just occur in ripe cereals; so far this year 29 circles have been recorded,
most of these inunripe cereal crops, as have been many other circles in
previous years. One of this year’s remaining circles, a 63-foot by 64-foot
ellipse, visible from the A427 east of Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire,
is in oilseed rape. There have also been others in the same crop elsewhere
over the last few years.
Ian Simmons Leicester
Letters: Not by faith alone
Donald Gould’s article ‘A little of what you don’t fancy’ (Forum, 22
June) once again displays New 杏吧原创’s uneasiness with forms of knowledge
which do not slot readily into current orthodox science. He happily accepts
that homeopathy seems to work, but tries to cover himself by referring to
it, in an oblique manner, as a form of faith healing. Faith may indeed be
part of it, but we must not overlook the many successful homeopathic veterinary
practices for whose ‘patients’ faith is not possible, as far as we can tell.
(Controlled tests have been carried out in some of these.)
The crux of the matter is not that ‘ . . . scientifically speaking,
homeopathy is a load of old cobblers . . . ‘ which clearly it isn’t, because
it works, but that homeopaths’ explanations may be scientifically unsound.
More important, though, is that science hasn’t so far found an explanation
which satisfies current scientific thinking. It may find one some day. It
may not. But surely Gould is not suggesting that science as of today can
explain everything. Homeopathy is merely one of the many scientific gaps.
It must be borne in mind also, that the notion that the universe is divided
into things that are science and things that are non-science is a notion
that exists only in the human mind.
Patrick Nugent Harleston Norfolk
Letters: Dirty plebs
This is a brief, but to me important, correction to Pratap Chatterjee’s
Forum piece (1 June).
In the first sentence, he has me devoting my literary attention to ‘the
great unwashed scientific masses’. I may be an intellectual snob, as stated
by Chatterjee, but such words would really have me cross the border into
arrogance. I said that my ‘science-in-fiction’ is addressed to ‘the (great)
scientifically unwashed masses’, because my principal interest is to use
my fiction to disclose our tribal behaviour to non-scientists.
Carl Djerassi Stanford University California, US
Letters: Optical aliens
With reference to the article ‘Is anyone out there?’ on the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence (25 May), I would like to suggest that the
30-year-old rationale that the microwave water-hole is the best place to
search for alien electromagnetic signals is suspect. It is more likely that
advanced technical civilisations would use optical techniques to signal
across the galaxy, using lasers operating in the visible or in the infrared,
for example at the carbon dioxide wavelength of 10 600 nanometres.
Within a few decades, most communications on this planet, both guided
(fibre optics) and free space (between satellites and across deep space),
will be via lasers. Indeed, much of the free-space optical technology is
being developed by NASA.
I certainly wouldn’t come to any conclusion about whether we are alone
until we have made a thorough search of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
S. A. Kingsley Columbus, Ohio, US
Letters: Absent tigers
Author Leigh Dayton makes a rather strange statement in ‘Save the sharks’
(15 June): ‘Pakistan’s Bengal Tigers, by contrast, attack approximately
600 people each year, killing 200′.
There are no tigers in Pakistan.
Nirmal Ghosh Singapore
Letters: Pal in the sky
In his Technology article (15 June) Barry Fox champions the universal
introduction of D2-MAC technology for European satellite broadcasting and
suggests that BSkyB’s use of PAL technology will cause Britain to be left
behind when high definition broadcasts begin ‘in a few years’ time’.
He should reflect on three facts. The first is that BSkyB is providing
a service which viewers want now, not in a few years’ time. The second is
that when Sky started service, PAL was the only technology available, and
the third is that BSB’s government – enforced wait for the ‘old’ D-MAC (already
such old hat that Fox does not mention it) crippled its chances of independent
commercial success. Standards which evolve at the same rate as the most
advanced technology often introduce unnecessarily early and therefore expensive
obsolescence. The great danger is that if either the consumer or the service
provider cannot afford to keep up with the changes, the intended ‘improvement’
actually results in no service at all.
Frank Barlow British Sky Broadcasting Isleworth, Middlesex
Letters: Filling the gap
In response to your editorial concern about the failure to appear of
the long-promised biography of Alan Blumlein (15 June), there is one course
of action that could be taken now. Those concerned should get together to
produce their own biography, and do so quickly.
This would of course lack the fine detail of the documents that have
been taken, but against that it would have the advantage of first-hand information
from those who knew him and the testimony of those who recognise the brilliance
of his work. For someone of this calibre it is surely better to have a not-quite-fully-documented
biography that captures the essence of the subject’s life and work and is
available here and now, than wait indeterminately for a more perfect biography
that may or may not appear.
A move to produce such a biography right away may also put on pressure
for the promised comprehensive one to appear. There would with such a subject
be room eventually for two books, in place of the present sad and gaping
hole.
S. N. Firth The Orkney Press Orkney, Scotland
Letters: Juvenile scientists
There are more scientists on the boards of the companies Michael Kenward
mentions than he has found (Forum, 15 June). However, scientists on the
board are not the solution for industry, they are part of the problem.
A scientist on the board is only slightly more decorative than a banker,
and a great deal less useful. This is because scientists have been trained,
and then allowed to persist, in playing the game of life according to a
simplified set of rules intended for apprentices and others still in education.
In industry you join the big boys, the technologists, and must play by the
adult rules. These include consideration of scale-up, reliability, safety,
cost and effluent, all of which are largely neglected by academic science.
Many companies have tried seducing senior academics into top management;
the results have seldom satisfied either side. It takes more than a BSc
to make a scientist, far more than a scientist to make a product, and more
than a product to make a profit.
The problem is not lack of science, but disregard of technology. Industry
needs more directors with experience of the perversity of the physical –
who may be drawn from production and development (rather than research)
– and fewer whose understanding is confined to the financial (accountancy,
sales, marketing).
I’m afraid Kenward will have to go on waiting for his boardroom chair.
The only thing he might offer is ability to mangle the tongue of Shakespeare
and Milton slightly less than is customary among managers and scientists.
This would help him to motivate subordinates.
Simon Roman Kenilworth, Warwickshire