Letters: Legal circles
An excellent review of legislative interference in the value of this
fundamental constant is provided by David Singmaster (he of Rubik’s Cube
fame) in ‘The Legal Values of pi’, Mathematical Intelligencer, 1985, vol
7(2).
James Petts Edgware, Middlesex
Letters: Points about pubs
We have searched for pub names with even the slightest connection with
science (Letters, 19 October) and the only certainty in our part of England
seems to be The Alkali in Jarrow. There are some with industrial connections
and perhaps vague scientific connections such as: The Davy Lamp, Kellow;
Eureka, South Shields; George Stephenson Inn, Tyneside; Inventions, Newcastle;
Mechanic’s Arms, South Shields; The Periscope, Barrrow in Furness; The Rocket,
Tyneside; The Telegraph, Newcastle; The Bowes Incline Hotel, Birtley; The
Spirit Level, Coldingham.
Further to the value of pi, those who attended the Third Technical Training
Battalion of the Royal Signals in Huddersfield during the early 1940s will
no doubt remember that prominent on standing orders was the instruction:
‘For the purposes of this course, pi will be three.’
A. J. Hoare Haltwhistle, Northumberland
Letters: Points about pubs
I know two pubs with scientific names. There is the Man in Space at
Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, with its ‘space-walk’ sign, and the Flying Bedstead
at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, commemorating the pioneer vertical take-off
aircraft nicknamed thus, which was developed and tested at the nearby Rolls-Royce
airfield.
Andrew Bond Bulwell Nottingham
Letters: Points about pubs
This university’s Alchemy Society held its annual ‘Fresher’s Cocktail
Party’ recently. The prize winning concoction was entitled ‘Vigorous Reflux’.
The same name would seem to be ideal for a pub frequented by organic chemists
and gastroenterologists.
Richard Taylor University of East Anglia Norwich
Letters: Points about pubs
Perhaps the following contenders are worthy of consideration: The Bohr’s
Head; The Nuke of Wellington; The Wheatstone Bridge Inn; The Gaia Fawkes
Hotel; The Meson’s Arms.
Peter Sweet, Steve Taylor, Mike Oliver Newcastle upon Tyne
Letters: Useful peas
Feedback asks (28 September) who says there’s no good use for frozen
peas, having quoted an example of their use to solve a technological problem.
But has he not heard of their importance in the medical field? A pound
of them can make a most effective cold compress for an injured joint: at
first they are stiff and unyielding, but as they thaw a little, they mould
themselves beautifully to the shape of the afflicted portion of the anatomy.
Eric Pearcey Sutton, Surrey
Letters: Mandelbrot pop
Regarding the Mandelbrot cornflake (Letters, 28 September and 12 October):
it follows that if a Mandelbrot cornflake is the self-same at all scales,
then the Universe originated not with a big bang but a snap, crackle and
pop.
P. S. Manning Gillingham, Kent
Letters: Insane war
The Yugoslav Immunological Society, like other scientific associations
in Yugoslavia, has for the past 15 years functioned as a harmonious union
of independent immunological societies from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Macedonia. In 1969 it was one of the founding members of the International
Union of Immunological Societies. Since then, the society has developed
personal and professional contacts with immunologists across all ideological
and national barriers around the world and from all parts of Yugoslavia.
During this period, a modern immunology with corresponding research and
teaching was developed, international and Yugoslav immunological conferences
were organised, and many immunologists from Yugoslavia participated in international
research projects. Now, however, all these achievements as well as the existence
of the Yugoslav Immunological Society itself are seriously endangered and
even the lives of our young colleagues are threatened by a dirty and insane
war.
This most uncivilised and irrational war in the heart of Europe must
be stopped immediately. If not, it will necessarily evolve into total ethnic,
religious and civil war resulting in massive loss of human lives, destruction
of cultural monuments, devastation of vast territories, migration of huge
masses of population, and finally ending with economic collapse, enormous
unemployment and social misery.
Obviously, our science which was so painfully developed to become a
part of the world scientific community, will be seriously crippled for a
long time. Therefore we appeal to responsible and conscientious scientists
around the civilised world to help us save what still can be saved by publicly
pleading, individually or through their institutions, for an urgent application
of all possible measures by the European Community and the UN to stop the
war immediately and to help create conditions for a civilised, peaceful
and democratic postcommunistic transformation of our society, based on negotiations
between all involved parties and strict respect of human rights of all the
citizens of Yugoslavia.
Miroslav Simic Yugoslavia Immunological Society Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Letters: Cranes and rafts
I have carefully read ‘A crane’s eye view of tropical forests’ (21 September).
Obviously, this crane technique is a very good one, and a lot of interesting
results are to be expected.
Being myself in charge of the so-called ‘canopy raft’ that you mention
in your article (and which we deliver by hot-air balloon, by the way, not
helicopter), I would like to make a few comments.
In my opinion, you should avoid saying that one technique is better
than another one: whether mountaineering rope, crane or raft, we need every
one of them, for they are good complements of each other. Rainforests are
being depleted so quickly there is no time left for polemics We should collaborate
by exchanging ideas, equipment, expertise and scientists.
Francis Halle Canopy Raft Base Camp South West Cameroon
Letters: Can the peat go on?
The letters from the peat industry (28 September) concentrate on the
renewability of peat, the area of peat remaining and on the rehabilitation
of sites worked for peat. Iain Richardson’s letter suggests that there is
little threat to this valuable resource.
Yes, peat is a renewable resource. In our climate, it accumulates at
about 2 millimetres per year. In contrast, current methods of peat extraction
remove between 150 and 500 millimetres per year. The habitat cannot therefore
sustain current rates of extraction.
Sphagnum moss will, as said, continue to grow at the worked out level,
given the retention of a suitable depth of peat and water table; but this
is a simplistic view of what nature conservation is about. The species dominance
and composition will be changed, the communities supported will be different
and the special charms of undisturbed bog will be missing, as will the historical
and scientific record. A part of the nation’s natural heritage is gone forever.
Information supplied by English Nature and other government conservation
agencies indicates that, of the 37 000 hectares of peat soils on lowland
peat in England and Wales identified by Burton and Hodgson (1987 Soil Survey
No 15), only 1170 hectares of natural raised bog remain. Less than half
of this is in England. Lowland raised bog, therefore, falls into the category
of a ‘nationally rare and endangered habitat’. The habitat is now so restricted
that we must seek to conserve the prime areas and enhance and rehabilitate
the best examples of the less pristine areas.
Derek Langslow Nature Conservancy Council for England Peterborough,
Lincolnshire
Letters: Can the peat go on?
Readers might like to know that some 65.8 per cent of raised bogs held
by members of the Peat Producers Association are Sites of Special Scientific
Interest – notified as such because of their importance for nature conservation.
Some 90 per cent of Fisons peatland holding has SSSI status.
Commercial working of bogs involves drainage and stripping of surface
vegetation before either milling the surface layers or digging out the peat.
These processes are not compatible with nature conservation.
Nationally and internationally important bogs are being destroyed while
we could be utilising our own waste products in horticulture, landscaping
and gardening.
Caroline Steel Wilflife Trusts Partnership Royal Society for Nature
Conservation Lincoln
Letters: Captive rhinos
With regard to Colin Tudge’s excellent article ‘Time to save rhinoceroses’
(28 September): the exponents of rhino captive breeding programmes fail
to acknowledge the present lack of scientific ‘know-how’ on how to manage
these animals properly in captivity. This is evidenced by failure to breed,
poor health and high mortality. Fatal haemolytic anaemia, dermatological
problems and low breeding success which seem to be associated with multiple
nutrient deficiencies, are common in the captive black rhinoceros. In addition,
there has not been any success in the breeding of the Sumatran rhinoceroses
in captivity; of 27 Sumatran rhinoceroses caught recently for captive breeding
33 per cent have died. Of course molecular genetic research programmes have
a place in rhinoceros conservation, but if these species suffer poor health,
do not breed, and have a low survival rate, then this type of research is
largely academic.
We do not yet understand the nutrient requirements of these species
nor have we been able to replicate the complex food chain of the natural
habitat. There is an ethical and moral obligation to establish the primary
requirements for health in the natural habitat so that both habitat and
species can be conserved. If considered appropriate, it would then be possible
to bring animals into the artificial, captive environment where the effect
of its artificiality would then be more readily understood.
Laurence Harbige, Keb Ghebremeskel, Michael Crawford IBCHN Laboratories,
Hackney Hospital, London
Letters: Thinking hard
In ‘The myth of Michael Faraday’ (21 September), Jim Baggott gives a
list of famous scientists and goes on to say: ‘Rightly or wrongly, they
are known for their contributions to theoretical science. It appears that
we prize great thinkers above all others.’
Such statements encourage an unfortunate picture of scientists, because
it implies that the other kind of scientists – those who do experiments
– do not think about what they are doing. In fact, it is a pity that the
term ‘theoretical’ ever gained currency to describe a certain way of doing
science. In my own field of science, physics, there are those who use experiment
to investigate nature, and those who use mathematics. Experiment and mathematics
are merely the different tools used in the investigations – both kinds of
scientists have to think, and deeply. A better nomenclature would be ‘experimental’
and ‘mathematical’ physicist, implying method rather than attitude.
A. C. Rose-Innes University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Manchester
Letters: Legal circles
In his query about American states legislating for the value of pi (Letters,
26 October), Peter Burrows half-remembers a fascinating but muddled story.
In 1897 the State of Indiana nearly passed into law the claims of a circle-squarer
named Edwin J. Goodman that he had found a ‘new and correct value’ for pi.
Unfortunately, the bill is so obscurely worded that it contains some
ten different and contradictory values for pi. And unfortunately for lovers
of civic humour, the vote on the second reading of the bill was postponed
so it never became law.
An account of this may be found in Peter Beckmann’s lively A History
of pi (New York, 1971).
In supposing that the value of pi concerned was exactly 3, Peter Burrows
may be confusing the Indiana representatives with the Institute for Pi Research
of Kansas, also discussed in your columns (New 杏吧原创, 6 August 1984).
These scholars claimed not only that pi is 3, but that since this is the
biblical version of pi (I Kings vii; II Chronicles iv, 2) their views deserved
equal time in state schools. ‘We deserve to be taken as seriously as creationists,’
they say.
The Kansas institute provides a challenging example of a group seeking
to test how far the views of biblical fundamentalists can be sustained.
John Fauvel The Open University Milton Keynes
Letters: Legal circles
The 1991 edition of the Guinness Book of Records states: ‘In 1897 the
General Assembly of Indiana enacted in House Bill No 246 that pi was de
jure 4.’ I seem to recall that earlier editions of the book gave the value
as 3. I don’t know what intelligence made them change their entry.
The same entry records that pi was calculated, in 1989, not to a billion
but to 1 011 196 691 decimal places. Guinness readers are spared the full
print out.
Colin Singleton Sheffield