Letters : . . .
Ashtead, Surrey
Moreton argues that the prevalence of religion indicates that genes for this
trait must have had a selective advantage in the past. In a sense this must
be true, but it doesn’t mean that the inclination towards religious belief was
itself advantageous.
Religion may be a by-product of a development that brought other advantages.
It has been frequently remarked that many human characteristics resemble those
of juvenile apes more closely than of adult apes.
The persistence in adulthood of juvenile or even prenatal traits accounts for
increased brain size and more upright posture. Some other traits have tagged
along, such as smaller jaws and brow ridges and flatter faces. This general
trend is known as neoteny.
The retention of learning ability may be a behavioural example of neoteny,
and so, I would argue, is the tendency towards religious belief. It represents
the desire for parental care that never quite leaves us as adults.
This might be modestly disadvantageous but may not be eliminated because it
is linked to other traits that are strongly selected for.
In this respect, as in a number of others, we are apes that never really grew
up. Hence: “Our Father, who art in heaven”.
Letters : Poxy passengers
Folkestone, Kent
Andy Coghlan reports that, out of 40 aircraft sewage samples analysed in an
American study, infectious viruses survived in 19, despite the use of
disinfectants (This Week, 17 May, p 7).
As this sewage is usually disposed of in
municipal sewage works, it seems that aircraft sewage could introduce foreign
viruses into a country.
What of the infected passengers who use the aircraft’s toilets? Presumably
they continue to pass viruses into the sewers for the duration of their stay in
a country, or until their infection has run its course. Unless they are merely
making a connection at an airport, and so just passing through, surely the
consequences of their stay far outweigh those of their flight.
Mark Sobsey, who led the study, and the WHO and the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, which jointly funded it, have provided us with an
interesting statistic. To make sense of it, we need to know what proportion of
infected passengers are just passing through a country, and what proportion are
staying.
Andy Coghlan writes: This crucial point has not been lost on the sponsors of
the study or on Sobsey, who says he is equally, if not more, worried about the
impact that infected passengers might have once they reach their destinations.
This, however, was not the focus of our story.
Letters : What's in a drink?
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Your correspondent is being a little alarmist
(Letters, 3 May, p 55). The
permitted additives to be found in wines are controlled by European Union
legislation and glycerol is present (only in some vodkas) at levels of a
fraction of a gram per bottle.
I, and my colleagues in public analysis laboratories up and down the country,
routinely analyse wines and other drinks for the presence and concentrations of
additives.
I share his concern over labelling, not so much for traditional drinks but
for alcopops, which are entirely manufactured and, as such, should carry a full
list of ingredients.
Letters : Free calls
Prudhoe, Northumberland
You presume that a British school connecting up to the Internet will need to
make a local telephone call for the connection
(Feedback, 10 May, p 92). But any
realistic approach would use dedicated lines, and so be free of call
charges.
I am a not a Labour Party supporter, so this is not a biased answer, but the
Labour plan is to allow BT into the cable television market (which is a good
thing as it will bring competition into a market where there is none). In
return, BT will provide all schools and libraries with dedicated lines free of
charge.
Letters : Case for Cassini
Pasadena, California
Rob Edwards omitted a number of salient points in his report on the Cassini
spacecraft, which is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral (not the
Kennedy Space Center) in October of this year
(This Week, 10 May, p 7).
The plutonium dioxide pellets are ceramic in nature and are all encapsulated
in a way that precludes the release of plutonium except in very rare
circumstances.
The radiation (alpha particles) given off by the plutonium is stopped by only
a few inches of air; the plutonium must be breathed into the body and become
lodged there in order to remain long enough to damage it.
Even if someone did breathe in a tiny amount of the plutonium, the amount of
radiation they would receive over a 50-year period would be hundreds of
thousands of times less than the dose they would receive from natural background
radiation in the form of cosmic rays and from the Earth’s crust.
An enormous amount of time and resources have been spent on thoroughly
analysing the safety of the Cassini mission. Over the years the programme has
carried out many design and mission changes that further reduce an already tiny
probability of inadvertent release of plutonium. If Michio Kaku and others doubt
the validity of those studies, I invite them to look at the data in detail and
draw conclusions from the facts.
As for me and my family, we plan to be at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to view
the launch of Cassini in October, and we look forward with great anticipation to
the scientific results of this amazing mission to Saturn.
Letters : Net loss
London
It would be nice for EMAP to be able to claim the credit for operating the
excellent General Election 97 Web site, even though you reported
(In Brief, 10 May, p 16)
that it was overwhelmed by the effort of trying to provide a live
results service. In fact, the site was built by Online Magic.
What the experience illustrates is that the Internet isn’t a great publishing
medium for absolutely everything. There were far better ways to get live
information on election night: television, radio鈥攅ven creaky old
teletext.
Letters : Animal magnetism
Leicester
We have the same magnetic cat flaps as Andrew Laing does
(Letters, 3 May, p 55).
Fortunately we haven’t had any scrambled data鈥攐ur backups are in a
fireproof safe.
However, it was noticeable that when the computers were in a room close to
the high-tech cat flaps, the starting of Windows or any Windows application
caused the power-operated latches on the cat flaps to rattle continuously until
the program, and Windows itself, was exited.
Is that why they call it a C(at)-prompt?
Letters : . . .
Glasgow
I seem to remember a report a few years back about a family who had to have
their television set degaussed after a cat with a magnet had spent many evenings
perched on the top of it.
Over a period of time the picture became increasingly drawn to the spot where
the magnet was hanging down over the screen. Eventually all that was left was a
miniature “drop” where the image had been condensed into the magnetised area of
the screen.
Letters : Correction
Correction: The story about the world’s most powerful magnet with a
13.5-tesla field (In Brief, 10 May, p 16),
should have made it clear that this was for a dipole magnet as opposed to
a solenoid magnet. It is more difficult to generate a strong field in a dipole
magnet because the high magnetic field is oriented so that it actually tries
to rip the magnet apart.
Letters : . . .
Beverley, East Yorkshire
Laing’s letter reminded me that my credit cards, normally kept in my back
trouser pocket, became magnetically corrupt on occasions and, after a while, I
was able to associate this with a ride in my car.
Eventually I discovered that the “massaging” seat covers, which my wife had
bought for the car seats, included lumpy areas, each of which, it turned out,
contained a fairly strong round magnet. These were duly removed.
I never discovered what they were meant to do for my physical condition, but
I know only too well the effect they had on my cards, and I am sure that they
would have done unspeakable things to any floppies which approached too
close.
Letters : . . .
Birmingham
Recently the Office of Fair Trading issued a booklet entitled Shopping
Sussed: Know your Rights! This is described as “a handy little guide” and
has been designed in a convenient size and shape鈥攋ust right to fit in a
wallet next to credit cards. And someone had the bright idea of incorporating a
magnet to enable the covers of the booklet to close neatly.
Thoughtfully, there is a statement in very small print inside which reads:
“This booklet may affect the magnetic strips on bank cards and travel cards.
Please keep separately.”
Letters : . . .
Ashford, Middlesex
The instructions that came with my PC say that anyone servicing the machine
should: “discharge any accumulated static electricity by earthing (the working
hand)”. This is a very sensible precaution, but it does not warn you to avoid
contact with pets.
While I was replacing a chip, a certain feline filibuster decided that it was
time for it to be fed and started to rub around my legs, as cats do. This action
caused the generation of a static charge in the cat’s fur, which earthed itself.
However, given a nonconducting synthetic carpet, the charge scrambled the chip
that I was holding.
Letters : Heavy beeping
by e-mail
Your story about “junk beeping” on pagers (Feedback, 3 May) was echoed
recently, when a colleague of mine got beeped by a strange number. On returning
the call, it turned out to be one of those phone-sex hotlines, so he was treated
to a few seconds of some woman moaning about how much she wanted him.
This was a real shock to my colleague, just as it was to the other two people
in the car, including his new boss, who he had only just met that morning. You
see, it is dangerous (if only to your career) to use hands-free car phones.