Letter: Milky ways
In answer to the observed differential in the keeping qualities of semi-skimmed
and full-cream milk (Letters, 10 August), the major difference between them
rests in their relative fat contents. Typically, these are 1.6 and 3.6 per
cent respectively.
All other factors being equal, and accepting that ‘going-off’ relates
to coagulation of milk proteins caused by the metabolic activity of lactic
acid bacteria, then it is possible that the higher level of fat in the full-cream
milk presents a less hospitable environment for the growth of the bugs,
consequently endowing the full-cream milk with a longer life.
S. Welch Willsbridge Bristol
Letter: Gene disasters
Iain Cubitt and Tina Barsby’s arguments in favour of biotechnology (Letters,
17 August) leave out many areas that could lead to major environmental and
economic disasters.
That there are very real risks from the release of genetically manipulated
organisms to the environment is widely accepted and a fact to which national
advisory committees, including the UK Government Advisory Committee on Releases
to the Environment, testify. Once released, these living organisms will
continue to have the potential to replicate and establish themselves in
the natural ecosystems. Retrieval of genetically manipulated organisms will
not be possible once they are in the environment.
Cubitt and Barsby point to insect-resistant crops as a particular benefit
of plant biotechnology. However, insects are already becoming resistant
to the first generation of engineered insect toxins (for example, Bacillus
thuringiensis) in plants.
The fact that millions of dollars are still being pumped into research
on pesticide-resistant crops shows that pesticides will continue to be predominant.
The lessons of DDT and its use have clearly not been learnt.
The oft-quoted benefits in terms of increased food production for ‘countries
which are short of food . . .’ do not stand up to scrutiny and fail, as
the Green Revolution failed, to provide for many of the poor in less developed
countries. How will poor farmers afford seed produced by genetic engineering
and how will they tackle emerging insect resistance? The trend is for companies
to patent the very genetic resources that farmers have helped to develop
and conserve, while knowledge of traditional farming methods that are the
key to sustainable food production is being lost.
Greenpeace feels this technology has the potential to disturb the environment
on a very large scale. We will continue to bring these concerns to the public
and will strive to ensure environmental concerns come before purely commercial
ones.
Alan Pickaver, Susan Mayer Greenpeace, London
Letter: Gene markets
Sean Hird and Michael Peeters (Talking Point, 27 July) are wrong in
their assertion that the currently proposed European Community directive
on patenting of genetically engineered plants and animals fails to address
the main ‘problem’ of the patent system, the existence of rules which prevent
discoveries from being patented.
In fact, the directive makes radical steps in this direction. It states,
quite clearly: ‘Where a substance is claimed in a form which results from
human intervention in the material world, it is more than a mere discovery,
irrespective of whether the intervention is simple or complex’ (page 43).
In other words the mere purification of a gene by cloning is sufficient
to make the gene an invention, because ‘the so called natural material has
been changed by human intervention’ (page 42; my emphasis). Thus, the directive
effectively disposes of the concept of discovery.
In fact, the directive simply formalises a situation which already exists:
the patenting of unmodified genes. Despite Hird and Peeters’s assertion
that only molecules generated by novel arrangements of DNA fragments (produced
by genetic engineering) are patentable, a brief look at any of the many
gene patents now granted, including the two recently granted on human genes,
makes it quite clear that the unmodified gene is protected by the patent.
Furthermore, the patents often cover related genes from different species.
The result is that a gene becomes the private property of a particular
company. Typically, the patent covers the gene and a number of species into
which the gene may be introduced. The company holding the patent then licenses
other companies (for a royalty payment) to insert the gene into particular
species.
The privatisation of genes, which until now have been regarded as the
common heritage of humankind, negates the principle of free exchange of
breeding material, which has been vital to the progress of plant breeding.
Patenting genes, plants and animals will have severe consequences for breeders
and farmers, which will feed through to consumers. It will also harm the
interests of Third World countries which hold the majority of the world’s
genetic resources.
David King The Genetics Forum London
Letter: Not buckyballs
It may seem odd that ‘chemists’ do not realise that no polyhedron can
be made out of regular hexagons; this isn’t really a matter of Euler’s formula,
but stems from the simple con-sideration that 3 x 120 degrees = 360 degrees.
You get then a beautiful flat pavement. Of course, Euler goes further and
explains that no convex polyhedron can be built even with irregular hexagons.
It is a pity that 3-D geometry has been largely dropped from high-school
teaching (at least, it is the case in France). If Smalley, Kroto and the
rest had heard of Euler’s formula (as I did some 40 years ago), they would
have been saved a night-long exercise with scissors, toothpicks and glue
(but would have missed a beer drinking party).
Henry Durand University of Paris France
Letter: Not buckyballs
As Jim Baggott says (‘Great balls of carbon’, 6 July), the name buckminsterfullerene
given to the globular carbon molecule C60 is something of a mouthful.
It is also, unfortunately, something of a misnomer.
While the late Richard Buckminster Fuller would undoubtedly have been
delighted by this use of his name (although, perhaps, less than wholly delighted
to be associated with the term ‘buckyballs’), he would have felt bound to
point out that while a football composed of 12 pentagonal panels and 20
hexagonal panels has the 60 vertices needed to provide a model of the C60
molecule, a sphere comprising 12 pentagonal sections and 20 hexagonal sections
and built on the geodesic principle of the Buckminster Fuller dome would
instead have 92 vertices.
A Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome is made up of interconnected struts
forming pentagonal and hexagonal sections. Each section comprises 5 (or
6) struts outlining the pentagon (or hexagon), with 5 (or 6) further struts
radiating from its 5 (or 6) corners to meet at a vertex over the centre
of the pentagon (or hexagon). These additional central vertices (12 for
the pentagon and 20 for the hexagons) bring the total to 92. I have verified
this by counting the vertices in my geodesic greenhouse.
Now, if ever somebody discovers a globular molecule containing 92 atoms
. . .
R. R. Hamilton Ashted, Surrey
Letter: Crystal clear
Jane Shemilt (Letters, 3 August) says that there are two lattice packings
in three dimensions with the same (maximal) density of 0.7404, whereas I
(‘How to succeed in stacking’, 13 July) said there is only one. The packing
that she describes, however, is not a lattice packing in the sense used
by mathematicians – where the centre of every sphere must lie at a lattice
point. It does have a repeating unit with lattice symmetry; but the centres
of some spheres are interior to that unit. It seems that crystallographers
and mathematicians use the same phrase with distinct meanings.
Ian Stewart Mathematics Institute University of Warwick Coventry
Letter: A Babbage is born
G. K. Gray asks for agreementon the year and place of birth of Charles
Babbage (Letters, 20 July).
Gray is correct that there is confusion about these facts. Babbage himself
said he was born in 1792. However, we are indebted to Anthony Hyman (Charles
Babbage – Pioneer of the Computer), who solved the mystery. The answer is
in the baptismal register of St Mary’s Newington, in the entry of 6th January
1792: ‘Charles Babbage, born 26th December.’ The year was conclusively 1791,
the house in Crosby Row, Walworth Road.
The Babbage family were prominent in the borough of Totnes for some
centuries. Totnes Museum has a Babbage memorabilia room, generously donated
by ICL and opened by Cedric Dickens, a great grandson of Charles Dickens,
in 1972.
W. Bennett Curator, Totnes Museum Totnes, Devon
Letter: Nothing simple
Hans Kruuk’s remarks on Masai rock paintings (Letters, 29 June) are
welcome indeed. They highlight an old archaeological problem: different
activities can leave similar material remains.
We do, however, wish to point out that the Masai rock paintings have
never been part of our argument. These were erroneously added to Roger Lewin’s
excellent summary of our work (‘Stone Age psychedelia’, 8 June). His summary
and fuller accounts of our argument show that a larger range of features
than those displayed by the Masai work should be present before researchers
can suggest shamanic association. These features are derived from neuropsychological
research on altered states of consciousness and are present in San (Bushman)
and other arts known ethnographically to have been associated with shamanic
rituals.
It would be wrong to regard a shamanic explanation as complex and the
explanations given by the Masai as, in Kruuk’s words, ‘simple, prosaic’
merely because they approximate in some ways to what Westerners believe
about certain kinds of art (for example, recording events). We should rather
enquire: Why these particular events? Why associations with cattle and hunting?
What was the social role of this art? What values does it proclaim? Is it
part of social practices involved in power struggles? These and other lines
of enquiry will show that there is nothing ‘simple, prosaic’ about Masai
rock art.
J. D. Lewis-Williams, T. A. Dowson University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Letter: Single instrument
Is New 杏吧原创 economising on its telephone bill?
By means of a single call, Nina Hall (‘A supercollider for Europe’,
27 July) could have discovered: (1) that I have visited CERN; (2) that I
have never visited the site of the SSC; and, most important, (3) that my
serious public question was about the need for expensive investment in both
the LHC and SSC rather than in a single truly international instrument.
David Phillips Chairman Advisory Board for the Research Councils London
Letter: Milky ways
As soon as you have realised . . . semi-skimmed is only pasteurised
. . . while homogenised is sterilised . . . you’ll no longer need to theorise
. . . about the speed of lacterial decomposition.
J. D. Wilkinson Diss, Norfolk
Letter: Credit due
I should like to add to Brian McCusker’s article (‘The quarks that fell
to Earth’, 20 July) that in the 1920s or early 1930s Felix Ehrenhaft, an
experimental physicist who was the director of the Institute of Physics
at the University of Vienna, told the students in his brilliant lectures
that he had consistently observed charges that were a fraction of the unit
electron charge by the Millikan technique described in the article. His
findings had been questioned by Millikan and by the establishment, but he
persisted in his claims.
After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, Ehrenhaft lost his position,
became a refugee, and lived in New York. He returned to Austria after the
war, but died shortly afterwards. He was a wonderful teacher and should
have received more credit than he did.
Anthony W. Schrecker San Diego California, USA
Letter: Asthma deaths
I refer to your article referring to deaths caused by asthma (This Week,
27 July).
Any patient who is forced to rely more and more heavily on Ventolin
etc., because of deterioration of lung function caused by asthma, is being
sold short by current standard medical practice. But restrictions on amounts
of these drugs prescribed monthly would almost certainly increase urgent
admissions to hospital and asthma-related deaths.
What is needed is recognition, both in the UK and worldwide, of an increase
in the incidence of this debilitating and life-threatening disease, coupled
with the will to begin to treat each individual patient effectively.
To simply reconsider guidelines is a pathetic response.
C. R. Percy Coulsdon Surrey
Letter: Explosive issue
Colleague Jenny Randles and I are in the process of researching and
writing a book on the alleged phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion.
SHC supposedly occurs when people burst into flame when there is no obvious
source of ignition. Often victims are reduced to ash, and even though their
immediate surroundings are damaged, a room for instance would remain untouched.
In some instances victims have survived after only losing a limb. The QED
programme ‘A case of spontaneous human combustion’ left many questions unanswered.
We are searching for information on possible cases, and informed comment
which will help us in our task. This can be material for or against the
possibility of SHC.
If SHC does exist, in terms that it presents something new to science,
we have reasoned that it must also affect animals. We are therefore also
searching for cases where animals have been found burned, or totally incinerated.
Perhaps at the time it has been presumed that they were victims of vandals
or lightning strikes.
We want to remove the mysticism from SHC and present the public with
a balanced look into the subject. If anyone can help, please contact me
at the following address: 6 Silsden Avenue, Lowton, Warrington, WA3 1EN.
Peter A. Hough Warrington Lancashire
Letters: Correction
In ‘Growing threats to peat’ (3 August) it was stated that coir can
hold nearly 1000 times its own weight in water. This should have been 10
times its own weight.
Letter: Life in the teenies
Can anyone please advise of a suitable name for the next two decades?
After eight self-naming decades will we soon be living in the ‘ones’,
‘singles’, ‘units’, ‘teens’ or ‘doubles’, etc?
Richard Caie Aberdeen, Scotland
Letter: Milky ways
Someone in the household is probably drinking the skimmed milk directly
from the bottle. The bacteria transferred to the bottle rapidly cause the
milk to ‘go off’. The guilty party will be the one who doesn’t like full-cream
milk.
Denis Still Ashford Middlesex
Letter: Milky ways
Skimmed milk tends to be produced at the end of the day and distributed
to retailers the next. The milk is therefore one day older and consequently
goes off quicker.
Andrew Chaplin Bridgend, Wales