Letters : More to discover
Histon, Cambridgeshire
So John Horgan thinks scientists have nothing left to discover (This Week, 28
September, p 12)? Well, the function of the spinal cord may have been
discovered, but the minor detail of how to repair a damaged one does seem to
have eluded the many scientists working on the concept.
This work might not seem “truly profound” to Horgan but, as someone whose
been stuck with a duff spine for almost thirty years, I have to say I’d be
pretty darned impressed if they succeeded.
Perhaps, if he has a lunch-break free, Horgan could provide me with an answer
to my minor problem? Until then, I’ll just have to keep reading of yet another
small step towards my goal (New 杏吧原创, Science, p l8).
As Orwell once wrote: “The war . . . is within measurable distance of its
end.”
Letters : Mister Jane
I first learnt the rule “all engineers are male” when I applied to graduate
school (Feedback, 7 September). I did my undergraduate work in mathematics and
there were several women in my programme. I applied for graduate work in
engineering at a very eminent engineering university and received my first
correspondence from it addressed to: Mr. Jane M. Fraser. I knew even then that
this envelope was telling me something and, 26 years later, I still have it in
my memorabilia box.
I did end up getting my PhD from that university, the first woman PhD ever
from that department. The rule “all engineers are male” has the contrapositive
“all females are not engineers”. I won’t bore you with stories of being mistaken
for a secretary, it’s a routine part of my life as an engineering professor.
Of course, actually being mistaken for a male is much more unusual, but it
has happened to me. Along those lines, I’ve never been able to figure out why
some foreign engineering graduate students sometimes address me as “sir”. I
don’t think they mistake me for a male, I think they just assume “sir” is a
general honorific and they would rarely have had to think about whether it
applies to female professors also. I treat all these events as amusing parts of
life. If I took the energy and time to be annoyed about them, I would be worn
out.
Letters : Cracker hackers
Needham Market, Suffolk
Keith Gymer makes several points about “hackers” and “hacking”, some of which
are simply incorrect, and some of which are downright rude (Letters, 5 October,
p55).
Unfortunately, Gymer seems to suffer from a mass-media-induced confusion
as to what actually constitutes a hacker. The media (when first reporting the
new wave of computer criminals) needed a simple name to give them, and
unfortunately chose the wrong one.
Basically, “hacking” (when the term was first coined) meant nothing more than
(roughly) “a person who is interested in, or whose hobbies include, using,
testing and writing computer systems and software”. The criminals that Gymer
describes do indeed exist, but are called “crackers”.
This whole confusion as to the roles of hackers/crackers only encourages the
crackers (who think “wow! This is great! I’m a “real” hacker now!”), and
infuriates the (ethical, old-style, call it what you will) hackers, who feel
they are being unfairly demonised. The main differences between hackers and
crackers are motivation and deeds.
Crackers break into (crack) computer systems (as Gymer stated) for fun,
getting kicks out of destroying important information, crashing systems and
behaving badly by anyone’s standards. They are the “cybervandals” and
“criminals” Gymer describes. They tend (as he stated) to be motivated by the
urge to destroy, or to prove how clever they are to their friends, and are
generally pitied or looked down on by everyone else.
Hackers, on the other hand, simply explore the systems they use (many never
go further than their own system), and, if they happen to find a bug/ security
hole/misconfiguration, simply drop a quiet note to the supervisor of that
system, often even detailing where fixes for that particular problem may be
found. They tend to be motivated by curiosity, the thirst for information and
even by helpfulness.
Letters : Tied hands
Honiton, Devon
The leak by Friends of the Earth of the internal World Bank document in which
the bank admits that environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have “limited
impact” on development projects must surely refer to one of the world’s most
open secrets (In Brief, 28 September, p 13). The main reason that EIAs are so
ineffective is simply that the environmentalists who assess these projects are
all too often not free to express their concerns openly.
Professional freelance environmentalists are very rarely contracted as
independent analysts at project feasibility study stage, when many of the
initial EIA procedures should properly be carried out. Even when environmental
studies are done at the start of planning, the funding is often minimal, and the
quality of the resultant studies abysmal. Instead, environmentalists are
generally employed as part of a large team of designers, economists and sundry
specialists, all preparing the final detailed design documents with the sole aim
of supporting the project proposals.
If, at this late stage, an environmentalist finds serious flaws in the
project’s concept, or that the bank’s requirements for open planning and
comprehensive screening of impacts have not been complied with during the
earlier planning phase, then his or her employers may simply edit out, or even
suppress, any material which they consider may delay or obstruct the completion
of the design phase contract. A recommendation to adopt the “do nothing” option
on environmental grounds is especially unwelcome.
If EIAs are to have the regulatory effect that was originally intended, then
they should be taken out of the control of the design contractors, and the whole
project design process made more flexible. Until environmentalists can act
totally independently, if necessary as environmental monitors to ensure
compliance with the policies and regulations which the bank and governments
claim to follow, the bank’s success rate in protecting the environment and the
people in it will continue to remain derisory.
Letters : . . .
Twickenham, Middlesex
Unfortunately, the side-panels detracted a great deal from the main article.
The panel on p 34 “Do Gay Men Make Better Brothers?” begins with a spurious
quotation of homophobic hate-speak from Robert Mugabe. An attempt is made to
justify its inclusion on the grounds that it represents a popular sentiment.
However, it is difficult to understand how describing homosexuals as “lower
than dogs” can be equated with a popular sentiment that homosexuality is not
natural. (Is the reader expected to accept that all things lower than dogs are
not natural?) Mugabe was not “disseminating the lay version of the notion that
evolution could not possibly select for a gay gene”, he was stirring up hatred
either for sociopolitical reasons or because of his personal homophobia.
The panel on p 35 “The feminine mystique” begins with an assertion that
“men’s sexual orientation is more or less bimodal”. As a bisexual man who knows
many other bisexual men, I find this statement counter to my experience and
would be interested to know on what studies it is based.
There is no reference given for this assertion and so no way to check the
methodology behind the statement that “far more women than men categorise
themselves as bisexual”. Whilst this may be true, there are many social reasons
why men may be more likely categorise themselves as gay or straight rather than
bisexual despite exhibiting just as wide a range of sexuality as women.
It is a shame that more attention wasn’t paid to bisexuality in the main
article since this is obviously relevant to research into a “gay gene”.
Letters : Gay evolution
Fiskerton, Nottinghamshire
Vittoria D’Alessio says that a gay gene could benefit the species as a whole
(“Born to be gay”, 28 September, p 32). However, natural selection doesn’t work
on the level of the species. Kinship theory is then mentioned, which is very
different to species selection. Kinship is a result of natural selection on the
level of the genes.
Using the “selfish gene” theory, the gay gene may benefit from causing
altruistic behaviour towards brothers. However, there is a 50 per cent chance
the brothers do not carry the gene, or if they do, they have an approximately 50
per cent chance of being gay themselves. In this case the gay gene has a 25 per
cent chance that a brother will be worth helping.
This suggests that altruism would be more common towards sisters. Sisters
also have a 50 per cent chance of carrying the gay gene, but since it is
recessive these sisters will reproduce and pass the gene on. So if kinship
theory is to account for the presence of a gay gene then altruism towards
sisters should be more common.
Letters : Bugs do the job
Manchester
Fred Pearce quotes David Lerner as stating that chlorinated solvents are not
broken down in water (“Dirty groundwater runs deep”, 21 September, p 16). This
may be the case in underground water supplies, but there are reports in the
scientific literature of bacteria oxidising such solvents. This is because
oxygenase enzymes, such as ammonia-oxygenases and methane-mono-oxygenases, can
fortuitously oxidise chlorinated solvents, including TCE.
In the biotechnology unit at Manchester Metropolitan University, we have
succeeded in immobilising high concentrations of ammonia-oxidising bacteria in a
fluidised bed fermenter. Although these are being used to nitrify an
ammonia-containing wastewater, a similar system should be able to destroy toxic
chlorinated solvents and may even be suitable for treating contaminated
groundwater.
Letters : Input/output
Leeds
I read with amusement the paragraphs in Feedback (21 September, p 88) about
speaker cables and sound. I have long advocated the use of thin speaker cables
and have even put resistors between the amplifier and the speakers (heresy). My
opinion is that the explanation of the phenomenon of cables sounding different
lies in the speaker/power amplifier interaction “corrupting” the negative
feedback system. Its ultimate resolution is to use a power amplifier without
negative feedback.
My own hypothesis revolves around the idea that the negative feedback loop in
the design of the power amplifier does not reduce the resonant and active
signals from the speaker itself, it actually increases them. These signals are
an externally derived input to the system.
If I understand the principle of negative feedback and its reduction of
distortion correctly, it works by comparing input and output within the
“Darlington pair” first stage. The input from the source material (CD, radio,
etcetera) goes in at one side and a suitably attenuated but phase-reversed
signal from the power output is fed back to the Darlington comparator. Any
distortion generated within the loop is reduced. Any distortion present in the
input signal is not reduced as it is not within the loop.
The reactive signal components of the speaker are not within the loop either.
The speaker system, being an electromagnetic-mechanical device, exhibits
significant electro-generative properties when in use. These resonant signals
are simply fed back to the amplifier as a highly undesirable input to the
system. They cannot be reduced by the feedback system as there is no valid
comparative signal.
All this continuing discussion about cables is a consequence of differing
reactions of the amplifier system to the active input from the speakers. But the
problem is not really to do with what is going to the speakers, it is all to do
with what is going back from the speakers.
Letters : It's the teachers
Wymondham, Norfolk
With reference to Anthony Cottingham’s reply (Letters, 28 September p 63) to
your Editorial of 24 August, his “obvious cause” is over-simplistic, although
not without a grain of truth.
As a head of science in the 1970s and 1980s, I changed the science curriculum
of a large state boarding school from separate, elective sciences to Integrated
(double) science for all. The result was a large increase in recruitment to all
the science A levels, a large increase in the number of girls doing physics at A
level and a crop of excellent A-level results. Many of the youngsters from this
period went on to excel in further education both in gaining firsts at
universities and as PhDs.
But in achieving this I was blessed with a team of excellent teachers and
some particularly gifted and committed physicists and chemists. And here lies
the problem鈥攖here are few gifted physicists or chemists teaching in
comprehensive schools today. Teaching combined and integrated courses can too
easily conceal this fact. A reversion to separate sciences would not on its own
cure the problem鈥攊t would only serve to highlight it.
The other problem for physics, and to some extent chemistry at A level, is
the generally poor grasp youngsters now gain of the sort of mathematical skills
relevant to the physical sciences鈥攕omething to which I am sure many
A-level physics teachers will bear witness. The problem here is not so much one
of teaching quality as one of a curriculum ill-suited to the needs of science
subjects, where mathematics is a tool to be used, not some arcane philosophy.
After years of finding themselves ill-equipped to tackle the quantitative
aspects of physics at A level, youngsters are understandably loath to risk the
attendant difficulties the subject will present.
Letters : Spit and flourish
No address supplied
Does talking to plants help them grow ? I think I know a reasonable
scientific explanation. Many people have what we call in Austria a “humid
pronunciation”, meaning that they produce a spray of saliva when speaking
Letters : Mercury's whammy
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Further to the two letters on the Great Dinosaur Extinction (Letters, 14
September, p 52), both of your correspondents suggested that the impact of an
asteroid hitting the Earth could have caused a lava pulse on the opposite side
of the planet, one suggestion being the Deccan Traps as the antipodes of the
Yucat谩n impact 65 million years ago.
There is a precedent for that in the Solar System. Mercury has an area of
tectonic movement in the vicinity of the crater Petrarch, which lies at the
antipodes of the Caloris Basin. The Caloris Basin was produced by an enormous
impact, and the area of tectonic movement is a chaotic jumble of fractured
terrain, associated with substantial volcanic eruptions. A description of this
feature can be found in the Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy, 1985 edition,
p 69. The authors suggest that seismic waves produced by the Caloris impact were
focused towards the antipodes of the planet.
Letters : . . .
Poole, Dorset
The inference of the document Pulping the South as reported by Peter
Knight is that trees are the only source of pulp for paper.
Industrial, governmental and environmental organisations appear slow and even
reluctant to recognise the value of Cannabis sativa, the hemp plant, as
a truly sustainable paper resource.
The plant needs few artificial inputs, is fast growing and has soil binding
properties. Every part of the plant is utilised, not only for all qualities of
paper but also oils, animal feeds and bedding, rope and textiles.
The Home Office now licenses some farmers in Britain to produce hemp on a
commercial basis. Varieties have been chosen with low levels of THC, its
“popular” narcotic component.
When considering a sustainable supply of paper for the future, it seems
logical to consider hemp as an alternative to trees.
Letters : Pulping the people
Chadlington, Oxfordshire
Indeed nothing in the forests is as it seems (“Better than it looks on
paper”, 28 September, p 16).
Working out what local communities really think, do and need is harder than
outsiders allow. Technocrats and businessmen who produce paper for the “global
economy” may think they know best what the planet needs. But what happens if
local people disagree? Will the paper companies allow local people to veto
plantation projects if they object to them?
Few do. As Pulping the South demonstrates, many paper companies are
locked in bitter struggles with social movements that resist this theft of land
and livelihood. We may “need” paper, but at whose cost?
Letters : Greenwich late time
Pretoria, South Africa
I visited the Old Greenwich Observatory about ten days ago, and if I am not
mistaken, I saw a flag hanging outside the building鈥攑resumably on the
meridian line鈥攑roclaiming something to the following effect: “0 degrees 0
minutes 0 seconds: The Next Millenium Starts Here”.
At the time I did not find anything wrong with this; but on reflection it
dawned on me that this could not be correct. Whenever the next millennium
arrives, it is bound to occur at the International Date Line and not at
Greenwich. The millennium will be a whole 12 hours old when it arrives at
Greenwich. Or have I missed something?
Letters : Warrior woman
Address not supplied
You claim in your headline that women don’t start wars (This Week, 21
September, p 13). To me the whole article is ridiculous. Why? Margaret Thatcher,
Falklands war, 1982.
Unless of course the author knows something the rest of us don’t.
Letters : Mellow yellow
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Brian Henstock’s “half-size wasps” which hovered over the yellow area of his
New 杏吧原创 (Letters, 14 September, p 53) were undoubtedly
hoverflies, true flies which often mimic bees.
They are frequently seen on dandelions and similar yellow plants, so the
attraction to the magazine page would seem to indicate that colour is the
trigger, without need for scent, fluorescence, or even the fascination of
New 杏吧原创’s contents.
Letters : . . .
Seascale, Cumbria
At present all the water we abstract from our reservoirs and rivers for
flushing toilets and so on is eventually discarded and discharged out to sea,
obviously on the assumption that rainfall will continue to compensate for our
wasteful practices.
As a farmer I am required to collect all the rainwater, urine and other
liquids that fall on my concrete yards in an underground tank and return it to
the fields via irrigators. Solid matter is filtered out and separately spread on
the fields to return the nutrients from whence they came. Farmers are not guilty
of depleting our water resources.
Future domestic and business premises, like the farms, should also be
required to return the water they use in an acceptable clean condition back to
where nature intended it to be鈥攗nderground. This could be done with
properly designed underground filter tanks. These should be orders of magnitude
removed from the present septic tanks and would possibly require some
research.
The greatest loss is rainwater falling on our roads, pavements and parking
lots. It could easily be solved if each area was provided with adequately sized
filter tanks.
The economies arising from my suggestion in sewage treatment plants, drains,
sewage tunnels and so on would be astronomical.
Letters : . . .
Correction: In Technology (28 September, p 22) we said that a paper
describing the revival of a frozen rat’s heart would soon be appearing in
Cryobiology. In fact, a paper by the team of researchers in question was
rejected by the journal, and no revised version is under consideration.