Letters: Tasteful turbines
Phrased in the language of renewable energy’s detractors of more than
ten years ago (‘low energy density’, ‘solar junkyards’, etc.) your editorial
‘Green eyesores’ (30 January) makes depressing reading for today’s proponents
of clean power.
Concerns about wind farm development expressed by bodies such as the
Countryside Council for Wales and the Council for the Protection of Rural
Wales are well known already – neither are actually opposed to renewable
energy per se, but both would prefer subsidy arrangements to ensure that
wind farms are not concentrated in the most landscape-sensitive areas.
However, the terms used by your leader writer emanate from some stronger
source. The visual impact of wind turbines has rarely been described as
‘appalling’ or ‘abominable’. The majority of wind farm developers and the
British Wind Energy Association would be themselves appalled that their
careful public relations efforts can still be brushed aside by detractors
convinced that they want to turn Wales into another Altamont Pass. Wind
farms in Britain have far more in common with developments in Denmark, Germany
and the Netherlands, where European planning codes exclude anything in the
style of US development.
As for electricity pylons ‘leading the eye pleasingly across the British
countryside’ – is this some sort of PR fantasy dreamed up by the National
Grid Company? Market research has shown time and again that three-bladed
wind turbines on solid towers are greatly preferred to any kind of lattice
structure, with pylons and their cables particularly disliked.
J. M. O. Scurlock Parliamentary Alternative Energy Group King’s College,
London
Letters: Tasteful turbines
I have been told that Denmark currently has about 3500 wind turbines
in service and that they contribute about 2 per cent of the electricity
requirement.
The thought that the visual sensitivity of our wilder hill countries
and our coastal flatlands should be so damaged for such a pathetic gain
appals me.
I can only wonder at the irresponsibility of people who advocate such
destruction to our environment.
Robert Ormiston-Chant Manchester
Letters: Active ingredient
It may interest Christopher Price and readers of his article (Forum,
30 January) to know that despite the fact that we have no connection with
the IRA, I and probably hundreds of thousands of others, regularly carry
nitroglycerine around with us.
It is in the form of an aerosol spray, the active ingredient being glyceryl
trinitrate – that is, nitroglycerine – intended for medical use to relieve
certain conditions of the respiratory and circulatory systems.
All one needs to be innocently contaminated is to be downwind of somebody
using the spray; all one needs to ‘plant’ evidence is to know that glyceryl
trinitrate is the same as nitroglycerine and how to press an aerosol button.
I would ask you not to print my name and address nor the trade name
of the spray, but I attach the instruction sheet from a canister of the
spray showing it contains 200 doses (of 400 micrograms each) of nitroglycerine.
Incidentally, the sheet is almost certainly contaminated, so wash carefully
before shaking hands with a policeman.
Name and address supplied
Letters: Business is best
Karen Gold describes the woes of researchers on short-term contracts
(‘Buddy, can you spare a contract?’, 23 January). Why not follow the example
of consultant engineers – and others – who form business partnerships,
to market their services, as companies?
My experience in the marketing of electronic instrumentation to academic
and industrial clients convinced me of the superior strengths of industrial
organisations in negotiating contracts.
To promote science research requires marketing skills. To win optimum
contracts requires negotiating skills. If science researchers were to group
together in optimum-sized companies, they could afford the hiring of marketeers
and contract negotiators to promote their work, and secure their future,
as companies.
Gerald Meteau Worthing, Sussex
Letters: Dead useful
In an otherwise excellent article on the history of anatomical dissection
and postmortem examination (‘Lessons from the Dead’, 30 January) Arend Dunning
states that better antemortem diagnostic techniques leave few unanswered
questions to be addressed by the autopsy. However, in the recent report
of the joint working party of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Royal
College of Physicians of London and the Royal College of Surgeons of England,
The Autopsy and Audit, evidence is reviewed which demonstrates that despite
progressively more advanced investigative and imaging techniques, discrepancies
between clinical and autopsy diagnoses have remained around the 10 per cent
level. Frequently, diagnoses revealed at autopsy would have lead to differences
in clinical management and probably to a more favourable outcome had they
been known antemortem.
Given the worldwide decline in autopsy rates it must be stressed that
the unfashionable clinical autopsy still has a valuable role in auditing
and improving the delivery of medical services and in the provision of accurate
mortality data for research and health services planning.
N. R. Griffin University Hospital, Nottingham
Letters: Better late
I refer to ‘Cleaning up with cheap technology’ (23 January). Matt Ridley
finds it strange that because Britain procrastinated over power station
pollution control, we are now well placed to take advantage of newer, cheaper
methods.
There is no strangeness about it at all. It is often people with more
money than sense who jump the gun. They end up with Betamax videos, quadraphonic
sound, BSB squarials and Delorean sports cars.
F. G. Grisley Barry, Glamorgan
Letters: Fair deals
While I appreciate much of what was presented in your article on the
in vitro anti-HIV agent isolated from the Cameroon vine (Focus, 16 January),
I regret the statements to the effect that the National Cancer Institute
(NCI) is being forced into agreements with 25 nations participating in the
NCI natural products collection programmes. On the contrary, soon after
the initiation of the collection programme in late 1985, the NCI formulated
policies for collaboration with, and compensation of, countries participating
in the programme. These policies are presented to each country with the
clear understanding that the NCI is very willing to enter into agreements
with any countries wishing to formalise their interaction with NCI.
The NCI mission is exclusively health oriented, and it is not in a position,
nor permitted by US law, to make up-front payments to source countries for
conservation and infrastructure development, such as those made recently
between Costa Rica’s INBio and Merck. It should be remembered, however,
that considerable assistance in these areas is given to many developing
countries through US government agencies such as the Agency for International
Development.
While all drug companies might not be persuaded to go along with the
NCI’s plans for compensation and use of source country resources, it is
encouraging to note that a number of companies have agreed to follow NCI
policies in return for access to the large NCI repository of extracts. The
nature of the ‘gaping loopholes to entice industry’ referred to in the article
is mystifying, but I emphasise, once more, that the NCI is strongly committed
to dealing in a fair and equitable manner with all countries that participate
in its drug discovery and development programme.
Gordon Cragg National Cancer Institute Frederick, Maryland
Letters: Typecast
Ian Gordon asks (Forum, 19/26 December) in verse for certain printers’
fonts: Baskerville, Caslon, Bembo, Garamond and Gill. I am happy to report
that they all exist in Adobe’s font catalogue, and so are available in Postscript
for laser printers. There are five variations of Caslon, so I hope the one
Gordon wants is there.
Jay Pasachoff Hopkins Observatory Williamstown, Massachusetts
Letters: Naming numbers
D. R. Ladd (Letters, 23 January) can rest assured that his conjecture
about the ‘words to numbers’ game is true.
A closed loop occurs whenever a name is repeated in the sequence of
number names (this becomes a black hole if the repeated names are adjacent).
If there is a language which does not give rise to any black holes or closed
loops, it must be possible to compile an unlimited sequence of number names
in that language without repetition. There must therefore be at least as
many different name lengths as there are numbers in the sequence concerned
so that, for example, there must be a name of at least a thousand characters
for one of the numbers up to a thousand. It is impossible to conceive of
any practical language in which this would be the case.
The underlying reason is hinted at in Michael Ecker’s original article
(‘Caution: black holes at work’, 19/26 December); the process of naming
numbers also reduces the infinite field of numbers to more manageable proportions
– in terms of name length. The use of separate names for different powers
of ten (even in languages such as Latin where the Arabic system of numerals
is not used) makes the naming of numbers essentially logarithmic in character,
compared with the linear scale of the numbers themselves.
R. Stewart Epsom, Surrey
Letters: Digging that hole
About 3 years ago, our pavement in Edinburgh was resurfaced. This process
took about eleven weeks, and had to be redone on several occasions owing
to poor quality. Approximately one month ago, our beautiful new pavement
and most of the road have again been turned into the surface of the moon.
This time it is in the name of cable television.
Our pavement has a meandering scar down the middle. Grit, smoke, smell,
dust, noise and inconvenience all abound. On some days it has been impossible
to bring a car alongside one’s own ‘bit’ of the road. Neither has it
been easy for elderly people, and those with very young children.
It would make much more sense if pavements could have one substantial
trench, integrated with the pavement – either on the dwelling side or on
the road side. This trench could then house all existing services, such
as gas, water, electricity, telephones, cable television, sewage – and all
as yet undiscovered services. The top of the trench would have continuous
covers, flush with the level of the pavement. Access would be by a standard
key, available to all agencies operating the services.
Sheila Mould Edinburgh
Letters: Willie the reindeer
Regarding sweet, spotty mammals: on Christmas morning I gave one of
my reindeer, Willie, a small piece of chocolate which he promptly ate. However,
unlike Einstein the hamster (Letters, 23 January), Willie didn’t develop
a red nose. At risk of mangling a musical myth about reindeer, I attribute
this to his lichens.
Nicholas Tyler University of Tromso Norway
Letters: Buzz off
Why do mosquitoes make such an irritating buzzing noise? This noise
seems to serve no useful purpose whatsoever – plenty of flying insects get
around quite adequately without sound effects. In fact it is counterproductive
for the mosquito, since it both serves to pinpoint the location of the mosquito
even in the dark, and to enrage the hapless victim to the point that he
has to jump out of bed and hunt down and kill the mosquito.
Surely natural selection would tend to favour those mosquitoes that
made the least noise, and over a few generations give rise to a strain of
totally stealthy insects that performed their dining in absolute silence.
Perhaps some reader could enlighten me as to why this has not happened.
Jeremy Holden Menlo Park, California