Sorry, wrong sun
Given that Humphreys and Larsen of the University of Minnesota believe that they have discovered the true location of the Sun within the Galaxy (New 杏吧原创, Science, 7 October), will we have to send another mission after the Voyager probes to catch up with them and change the information inscribed on their plaques? After all, it would be pretty hard on the alien civilisation to have come all that way just to find themselves in the wrong solar system.
Inferior women
Like David Milsted, who shared some superb “regrettable quotes” with us (Forum, 19 August), I collect pronouncements by Great Men of Science, and should be delighted if readers of New 杏吧原创 would contribute examples (preferably with references), which will be gratefully acknowledged when published. My chosen field is that of “sexist quotes”.
Across the centuries, nay millennia, distinguished thinkers have sought to deduce, explain or illustrate the undoubted superiority of the male. Aristotle deduced: “A boy is like a woman in form, and the woman is like an impotent male 鈥� being incapable of concocting 鈥� semen”; “The male always perfects the work of generation, for he imparts the sensitive soul”; “Too black a hue marks the coward, as witness Egyptians and Ethiopians, and so does too white a complexion, as you may see from women. So the hue that makes for courage must be intermediate between these extremes.”
Darwin thought that the greater size, strength, courage, pugnacity, energy, inventiveness and intellectual vigour of man, compared with woman, was acquired by natural selection from primeval times, through the contests of rival males for the possession of females.
According to Nietzsche: “When a woman becomes a scholar there is usually something wrong with her sex organs.”
The great chemist Richard Willst盲tter wrote: “I went to Heidelberg and became engaged to Sophie Leser, which was not exactly easy. What I had to tell Miss Leser was discouraging 鈥� mainly warnings.
“I told her about my absorption in my work and lingered over one of my researches, which was very small and unimportant, telling her that I spent more time and effort on this bit of work than I can afford to spend on looking for a bride.”
Unlike Milsted, I do not restrict the field to issues which have been firmly and finally resolved.
Time to hibernate
As the warmth of summer gives way to the chill of winter my body starts to reject the need for salads and craves the comfort of stodge and sweets as I try to maintain my body temperature. As the days get shorter and the sun no longer manages to make inroads through the grey sky, the warmth and comfort of my bed becomes increasingly attractive and a refuge from reality.
Does this mean that I’m SAD (This Week, 30 September) or am I just reacting like a normal human being to the possibility that hibernation is quite a good idea?
Letters to the Editor
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Mud in our eyes
I wonder what led New 杏吧原创 to credit the finding of the Wootton Bassett Mud Springs to “a survey by the local council” (In Brief, 7 October).
I “discovered” them in 1974, though of course they were familiar to local people as “the bogs in the copse”. Realising that they were unusual and probably special I wrote an account of them in the Wessex Cave Club Journal (cavers are interested in springs) and sent it to the Nature Conservancy Council, now English Nature, with a recommendation that they deserved SSSI status.
Nothing much happened, in spite of my occasional reminders in the popular earth science magazine Geology Today, which indicated that they are rare, possibly unique. It took an incident four years ago to stir the establishment into action.
For safety’s sake, as new housing estates sprawled towards the Mud Springs, an attempt was made to fill them in. One hundred tonnes of rubble tipped into one of the three springs vanished without trace, except for the equivalent volume of liquid mud that surged into the adjacent brook and had to be cleared out by the National Rivers Authority. More publicity in Geology Today, a new road proposal and interest by the landowner, Wiltshire County Council, sparked the present excitement.
The preliminary investigation by the Natural Environment Research Council is already showing that there is something very unexpected down there. After twenty years of disinterest, an SSSI designation for the Mud Springs now seems assured.
Nothing is nothing
Paul Davies writes: “Quantum physics and the so-called inflationary Universe scenario give a plausible account of the initial conditions, that is, of how the expanding Universe originated from nothing” (Letters, 23 September). I can’t help feeling this is just a mite over-optimistic.
Big bang cosmologists confidently inform us that it was the big bang which created space and time, matter and energy, that the Universe sprang causelessly and without reason 鈥� from out of Absolutely Nothing. They then take a short breath and go on to tell us that this particular sort of Absolute Nothing consisted of virtual quanta fluctuating in a false vacuum. If there were preexisting quanta, virtual or actual, in a pre-existing vacuum, false or true, then there was space and time, matter and energy, in some form or other.
Many cosmologists write about what they call the “creation” of the Universe without really describing the creation at all. What they describe is the Universe’s subsequent history. “Right,” they announce smartly, rubbing their hands, “this is the way it was: The Universe began from an initial state of Total, Absolute Nothingness. The quanta fluctuating in this vacuum resulted in 鈥�” and away they go, galloping off in all directions, while the rest of us are left far behind shouting “Whoa.”
Too late. They are out of sight and beyond hearing, having disappeared in a great cloud of dust and non sequitur, swishing their tails to shoo the flies away from their broad hypothesis.
Cosmologists insist that prior to the big bang there was no space. But what is a vacuum? There was no matter, no energy, they also insist. But some quanta are matter and all quanta and all vacuums possess energy. There was no time, they tell us. But if there were quanta, even virtual ones, and vacuums, even false ones, then there was duration and change, and if that is not time, then what is? We can call it “virtual time” or “false time” or “imaginary time” but these modifiers explain nothing, they only pretend to explain, while they hide our naked ignorance behind the fig leaf of humbug. For Nothing has no duration, nor does it change. This is because Nothing has no characteristics, no qualities, no properties, no attributes. That is why it is Nothing. If it had an attribute or two then it would be Something.
Big bang cosmologists are going to have to decide if the Universe, all of it, and not merely this or that portion of it, suddenly emerged Uncaused from Nothing for No Reason 鈥� or if it developed from pre-existing quanta in a pre-existing vacuum. And if they plump for the latter then they are going to have to demonstrate how these came into pre-existence. From some pre-pre-existing pre-pre-initial state? And so on? Backwards and downwards in eternal regression? Or did they “always” exist? And if so, how is this explained? Or is the Universe “just one of those things that happen from time to time”, as one cosmologist has “explained”.
I think we would be wise to heed the words of the physicist Lev Landau: “Cosmologists are often wrong, but never in doubt.”
Prozac in the clubs
A friend at the centre of the British club scene tells me Prozac is not being used recreationally (Letters, 14 October). Nor has it been offered to her by any “dealer”. There is awareness that Prozac will reduce the toxicity of ecstasy, but this goes with a perception that Prozac will also reduce the effects of ecstasy; so combined use would result in a less enjoyable experience. Recreational drug users are unwilling to sacrifice enjoyment for safety.
Patently misguided
I refer to the proposed contracting out of “areas of nonstatutory work” undertaken by the British Patent Office, especially the contracting out of the London front office based at 25 Southampton Buildings.
The majority of British and European patent applications, especially those emanating from overseas, are lodged at the London front office. Applicants rest secure in the knowledge that the proprietary information contained in their applications will be kept secret until official publication, and will be read only by persons of the utmost integrity 鈥� that is, the tried and tested Patent Office staff.
Applicants would not countenance inspection of their applications by members of a private organisation; it is their perception of such an organisation which might even be a competitor of some applicants, which matters. Instead, as Barry Fox has pointed out (Patents, 26 August), applicants will file their European patent applications at Continental patent offices, resulting in a considerable loss of foreign exchange and jobs to this country.
Moreover, as Fox also said, the US defence industry would not file British patent applications in respect of defence-related inventions if any organisation other than the trusted Patent Office would have access to them. The end result will be a reduction in investment in this country by the US defence industry.
The Government should withdraw this misguided proposal.
Facts of commerce
Your editorial “Public good, private gain” and accompanying This Week article (30 September) refer to my company’s work sequencing the genome of Helicobacter pylori. We recognise the critical role played by basic research laboratories studying the molecular biology of H. pylori. We are also aware that advances made by Astra and Genome Therapeutics Corporation in developing new antibiotics or vaccines for H. pylori will owe a debt to this basic research.
We expect to repay this debt by delivering better treatments in a timely fashion. This is why we invested our own money into rapid sequencing of the H. pylori genome, and are in partnership with Astra to funnel that information towards products as rapidly as possible. It is a fact of commercial life that critical information in a highly competitive field such as this must be held in confidence for a time.
The Mycobacterium leprae and M. tuberculosis sequencing at GTC has been pursued under an award from the National Center for Human Genome Research to develop the technology for multiplex sequencing, a rapid sequencing approach based on sample mixing and molecular decoding. The primary goal of this project is to develop faster sequencing technology. Mycobacterial genomes are being sequenced under this project by choice, not by contract, as stated in the article.
All data have been made public within six months of finishing, and are available on our Web site: . The latest data are being prepared for submission this month. Twenty M. tuberculosis sequences covering one fifth of the genome are close to completion. We expect to sequence most of the rest over the next 20 months.
Your editorial highlights an important issue, but I believe the emphasis is misplaced. The problem is not “common good” research being done by private companies; it is the funding reductions hitting public support of such projects. If high risk science is not funded by the public agencies which have traditionally funded such research, it will be done by the private sector which will require a return on its investment.
Tourists welcome
In your article “Electronic crofting” (26 August), it was implied that Shetland does not want “boards of souvenir-hunting tourists” and one interviewee was quoted as saying: “We want their money, not them.”
On behalf of Shetland Islands Tourism, one of Shetland’s most important industries, I wish to repudiate any claims of negative feelings towards visitors. On the contrary, we pride ourselves on our famous Shetland hospitality, and strive to make all our visitors feel welcome.
Tourism is vital to Shetland’s economy, and we work very hard to market Shetland and increase the number of tourists who visit our islands. Our “electronic crofts” could also provide a new experience 鈥� and an added bonus.
The article extols the virtues of selling through the Internet, but after all a holiday is not something which can be experienced through the World Wide Web, no matter how technologically advanced the world is.
Tennis cycles
Oh, dear. Not that old one again about why left-handers are better at tennis (New 杏吧原创, Science, 30 September). Forty years ago, scientists were full of theories (mostly about the poor coordination of the right side of the brain) to explain why left-handers could never be capable of the best tennis because no left-hander had ever won Wimbledon.
Then Jaroslav Drobny won in 1954, and although I don’t think there was a left-handed women’s champion before Martina Navratilova, the current proportionate excess of top left-handers is probably no more than coincidence.
Perhaps these things just go in cycles, like the predominance of Scandinavian middle distance runners being followed by that of the British and now the Africans.
Squally sex
Your suggestion that strong winds disrupt curlew sandpiper matings and result in infertile eggs overlooks an important point (This Week, 30 September). Many ornithologists and biologists make the same error by assuming that any egg that fails to show any signs of embryonic development after a period of incubation must be infertile.
This isn’t true. It is just as likely that fertilisation has taken place but that the embryo has died at a very early stage. Ornithologists can check this relatively simply using a microscope. An egg that has been fertilised will have one or more holes in the tissue layer (the inner perivitelline layer) which surrounds the ovum (the yolk), where the sperm have penetrated the germinal disc region (the white spot you can see when you crack open an egg). There will also be abundant sperm (best seen using a florescent dye) in the outer perivitelline layer.
We have examined a number of allegedly infertile eggs in a range of wild bird species and found that between 80 and 100 per cent were actually fertilised, but simply failed to develop because of early embryo death. While it is possible that wind can disrupt sex, it’s more likely that it disrupts other aspects of the birds’ biology resulting in the early mortality of their eggs.
Arsenic in China
Your article “Death and the devil’s water” (16 September) described deaths in India from arsenic poisoning from the water in deep wells. You ended by advising us to look around the world for other examples of endemic arsenic poisoning.
Daily arsenic intake was one of 367 variables in the big Chinese survey Diet, Life-style and Mortality in China. This survey covered 65 Chinese counties and was undertaken by the Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Beijing, in collaboration with Cornell and Oxford Universities. The report lists 134 322 correlation coefficients.
Arsenic in food was more highly correlated with mortality under the age of 15 than any other food constituent. Arsenic in food was also significantly correlated with infant mortality. Such increased mortality rates early in life are unlikely to be caused by poisoning that starts soon after birth, as your article suggests. They are more likely to be caused by arsenic in the diet of mother or father before conception and during early pregnancy.
Arsenic is an established mutagen active during cell replication. The highest rates of replication of important cells are during the maturation of germ cells before conception and during embryonic development. The highest susceptibility to environmental mutagens is, therefore, during the stages of reproduction. The Chinese survey shows DDT, another mutagen, as next in rank to arsenic as a correlate of infant mortality. The correlations in the Chinese survey do not, of course, establish cause and effect but only hypotheses meriting close examination and follow-up.
Electricity shock
The leaks from the impending National Council on Radiation Protection report on the link between electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and cancer vividly illustrate the perils of environmental legislation in a world of scant knowledge (This Week, 7 October).
California and 12 other states, presumably in collaboration with the EPA, have introduced legislation that mandates the introduction of zero emissions vehicles from 1998, rising to 10 per cent of all light vehicles sold by 2003. Although electric vehicles are not true ZEVs, only achieving that status at point of use, it would appear that electric propulsion is the only technology currently envisaged to meet this mandate.
The NCRP report and the forthcoming Environmental Protection Agency review are likely to lead to legislative standards for exposure to EMFs that will kill off electric vehicles. If the future safety limit is set at 0.2 microteslas, and a vacuum cleaner can expose the user to up to 20 microteslas, sitting on top of a 40-kilowatt electric motor for long periods is going to do the driver and passengers no good at all.
What is the strength of the EMF near a microwave oven and a television or computer screen?
Your article lists the electromagnetic fields from various household appliances at 30 centimetres, but there is no mention of electric blankets or duvets. Should I throw mine away? I spend about a third of my life less than 1 millimetre away from it.