Letters: Humane alternative
Andrew Pinchin is concerned about the plans to investigate fertility
regulation in African elephant populations (Letters, 12 September). However,
his assumption that Kenya’s decision to seek an alternative to culling is
an ‘imposed’ first world, hi-tech solution is simply nonsense. Fertility
regulation is an accepted concept in a number of wild species and it may
well prove to be economically justified in the case of certain populations
of elephant in Kenya.
Pinchin, by implication, casts scorn on an attempt to find a more humane
alternative to culling. All I can say to him is that a growing number of
people believe very strongly that we should be better tenants of this planet
and being humane is surely a reasonable part of this. In Kenya we also have
no wish to see our vital tourist industry damaged by a consumer boycott
from people who could easily turn against us if we were to adopt a culling
programme for elephants.
Pinchin ought to realise that there are a number of approaches to wildlife
management and the Southern African one is not applicable everywhere, assuming
that it really worked anywhere.
R. E. Leakey Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi, Kenya
Letters: Etheric effect
Andrew Watson referred to ‘a relativistic effect called the Sagnac effect’
(New 杏吧原创, Science, 19 September). For the sake of historical accuracy,
please permit us to state the true facts of the matter.
George Sagnac published in 1913 the discovery of the optical-gyro effect
under the heading: ‘Experimental Proof of the Reality of the Ether’. This
was a specific response to the alleged superfluousness of the Ether put
forward by Einstein in 1905, and to the claim of its non-existence made
by others at about the same time. Sagnac conceived the optical-gyro effect
on the basis of the Ether, and he performed the experiment for the declared
objective of demonstrating the reality of the Ether, an objective he claimed
to have accomplished.
The Sagnac effect is not a relativistic effect; it is an etheric effect.
M. Psimopoulos, T. Theocharis, J. Ongena Forschungszentrum Julich Germany
Letters: Frozen stiffs
May I take gentle issue with Morton Schatzman’s pessimism about repairing
and reviving frozen (‘dead’) people? (‘Cold comfort at death’s door’, 26
September).
First, a practical matter: Cryonics Institute prices are much lower
than the Alcor prices quoted. For a full body suspension (the only kind
we do) there is a one-time fee of $28 000 payable at time of death or shortly
after, often through life insurance. There is also a one-time membership
fee of $1250 for an individual. This is eminently affordable for most Americans
and Europeans.
Now the old ‘hamburger’. Schatzman has fallen into the trap dug for
himself by one of our best known detractors, who repeatedly said: ‘To revive
a frozen person would be like reconstituting a cow from a hamburger.’ Your
readers can easily and quickly recognize the intellectual and/or moral
poverty of this statement.
Many animals (insects and shellfish, for example – no adult mammals
yet) have been revived after freezing. None has ever been revived after
grinding. To say that revival after freezing would be as far-fetched as
after grinding, therefore, is either stupidity, ignorance, or dishonesty.
The sub-head of the article says, ‘Everybody has to die.’ This is merely
a cliche, not a law of nature. Some of the most respected gerontologists
think senescence may become preventable and reversible. With or without
cryonics, many of those now alive may never experience ‘natural’ death.
But many of us will need cryonics as the only available bridge to that better
future.
R. C. W. Ettinger Cryonics Institute, Michigan
Letters: Padlocked
What a shame your item ‘Hard hats save Malaysian rainforest’ is anonymous
(This Week, 26 September). The author surely deserves recognition for cramming
so much misinformation in so few lines.
Pasoh is a forest reserve under the auspices of The Forestry Research
Institute Malaysia and as such is not even remotely threatened by logging.
The walkway was commissioned (and paid for) by Japanese researchers looking
into plant physiology. The assertion that ‘tramping over the forest floor’
causes nearly as much damage as logging, is patently preposterous (ever
seen a bulldozer in action?), particularly in the context of Pasoh, where
weeks may pass between visitors, and where there are currently no resident
scientists.
The most ludicrous statement is that ‘scientists and tourists . . .
can look down on tigers, in their natural habitat’. Disregarding the total
lack of recent records of tiger at Pasoh, it is difficult to imagine how
one could look down on them when the walkway is surrounded by a high chain
link fence topped with barbed wire. This and the padlocked gate effectively
exclude visitors as well. The key is supposed to be readily available, but
several visitors have been unable to gain access. 杏吧原创s apparently
fare no better: an American botanist who was based at Pasoh for three years
was refused access to the walkway by the Japanese and had to resort to climbing
ropes to conduct experiments in the canopy.
It may be no coincidence that the name of the scaffolding company is
one of the few things to avoid distortion, and as they also provided the
photograph perhaps we need look no further for the source. The irony is
that Pasoh is a fascinating place, and that the walkway is remarkable in
its design and construction (it was erected almost single handedly by a
scaffolder from Ireland in just one week). Both are worthy of more objective
comment.
Phil Hurrell Danum Valley Field Centre Lahad Datu, Sabah East Malaysia
Letters: Best without spin
John Chapman says he has yet to hear of a satisfactory explanation
why aircraft wheels are not spun up before landing (Letters, 17 October).
Perhaps I can offer three that he will find satisfactory.
The first is that the skid event does slow the aircraft, albeit not
by much. However, the energy to bring the wheels up to speed has to come
from somewhere and that somewhere is from the aircraft. That dissipation
of energy occurs at the moment of touchdown. Thus an aircraft that is moving
at just above minimum flying speed is suddenly slowed to just below it –
useful when landing.
The second is the danger associated with such a device going wrong.
Aircraft – particularly airliners – tend to have a lot of wheels mounted
on two main undercarriage legs. The potential failure scenarios are quite
frightening.
Over-speeding the wheels would extend the landing run – not likely to
be a problem unless the runway length was critical (but of course Murphy’s
law would ensure that the first instance of over-speeding would happen when
runway length was critical).
If the wheels on the two sides were spun up to different speeds this
would create a turning moment which would come in to effect at the moment
when the aircraft was moving fastest and there was least time to counter
it.
If the wheels on the two sides of one bogie were spinning at different
speeds this would create a turning moment on that bogie only: this would
put the leg under massive transverse strain. The worst failure, of course,
would be for the spin-up mechanism to seize, preventing the wheels from
turning at all.
All except the over-speeding would probably result in the same event:
a massive fireball as the aircraft veers off the runway with tyres bursting
and main undercarriage legs snapping like matchsticks.
The third reason is economic. A spin-up device would be quite heavy
– one engineered to overcome the potential failures discussed above particularly
so. The cost of the fuel burned to carry it about the world would handsomely
exceed the value of the rubber ‘saved’ by having it.
On the question of lives saved by life-jackets, the answer is probably
none in the past 30 years (but I am happy to be corrected on this). However,
I wouldn’t make a long over-water flight with an airline that didn’t provide
them.
A. J. Findlay Bexleyheath, Kent
Letters: Better than steroids
You report a study which found levels of testoterone to rise following
sexual intercourse, especially in women (New 杏吧原创, Science, 3 October).
This must surely lay to rest the traditional advice of many sports coaches,
that their charges should abstain from sex for fear of undermining their
performance. A whole new type of training regime could become popular, removing
the pressure on athletes to take steroids in order to compete on equal terms.
Malcolm Hunter Leicester
Letters: Iron rules
I don’t iron (‘How crumpled clothes could save the world’, Forum 3 October).
Well, no, to be absolutely accurate I iron every two or three months
for half an hour or so, but always as a luxury activity. I anticipate ironing
next around 3 November, a couple of weeks after a family party at which
I shall indulge myself by getting out my grandmother’s embroidered tablecloths.
I ironed last on 15 July. My son was going to college for the first
time and I did something I have never done in my life before – ironed his
shirts, and even his shorts. That must say something about social expectations
and/or my feeble-mindedness. My sons would never dream of expecting their
clothes to be ironed.
Thanks, Vitali Matsarski. Non-ironers of the world unite.
Felicity Eaton Baldock Hertfordshire
Letters: Students in debt
William Bown compared me (a geologist) with a PhD student in medicine
(‘Messages for the minister’, 3 October). He implied that the contrast in
our comments was attributable to differences in self-motivation. It would
have been more appropriate to highlight the disparity in the financial support
which is on offer to research students in medicine and the rest of science.
The basic maintenance grant from the Medical Research council for a
PhD student outside of London is 拢5785 a year. This is 20 per cent
more than earth scientists receive from the Natural Environment Research
Council and a full 30 per cent higher than the stipend from the Science
and Engineering Research Council for physicists, biologists, chemists and
mathematicians.
William Waldegrave could start his inquiry by asking himself why the
size of the grant awarded to a research student by the government, via the
research councils, should depend on the subject of study involved. Is it
only a matter of time before the same logic is applied to undergraduate
courses as well?
A recent survey by Barclays Bank and NUS Services revealed that students
graduated last summer with average debts of 拢1765. The arrears for
PhD graduates will have been even larger. Nothing can dampen one’s spirit
for scientific endeavour like living on the edge of poverty for three years
or contemplating your prospects in a depressed job market with the millstone
of a gargantuan overdraft around your neck.
If the Office of Science and Technology is seriously to consider the
future of scientific research training in this country, it must first conduct
a throrough investigation into the levels of debt amongst research students
and then address the causes.
I have now completed my three years of training as a research student.
In view of all the financial hardship which this has involved, surely my
self-motivation cannot be called into question? The real point at issue
is: Can William Waldegrave match me with his commitment to British science?
Bob Ward University of Manchester