Letters : No short cut
Vancouver, Canada
Matt Chatterley writes that the use of “www” in Web addresses is unnecessary
(Letters, 20/27 December, p 81).
Not quite. While for some sites www.xyz.com is an alias for
xyz.com, for others it is not. Given a location xyz, Netscape will
first try to find a local address for xyz, then a global address, then an
address for www.xyz.com before making a Web request. Thus typing
IBM works, but IBM.com doesn’t.
Sites in other top-level domains must be entered in full (though one can omit
the http://).
Letters : Close to home
London
The phrase “social science” may well be largely oxymoronic, as John Gribbin
says (Review, 10 January, p 41).
And this should indeed prompt physicists less
fortunate than himself at securing a place at the funding trough to turn their
attention to it. There is no reason why the Apollonian analytical powers of
“real” scientists should not be extremely effective in bringing new rigour to
the study of social and political life.
Perhaps they could begin with a study of their own social milieu and address
such fundamental issues as the determining factors in the allocation of research
funds or the related question of the social and scientific implications of the
age-old prostitution of physical science to military power.
The problem is that in meddling with these matters they might risk being
banished from the physics trough for the rest of their careers. Physical science
is very resource-hungry, so the discipline of never looking a gift horse in the
mouth can be added to the list of those “things that real scientists learn in
the cradle, and use by instinct when doing the research”, as Gribbin puts
it.
It may well be that Gribbin could explode the myth of social science in his
tea breaks, in between determining the age of the Universe, or it may be
that鈥攔ather unscientifically鈥攈e chooses his facts according to his
convenience, preferring them light years distant rather than on his
doorstep.
Letters : Caribbean eclipse
Williamstown, Massachusetts
I am glad to see the correspondence about the solar eclipse in Europe on 11
August 1999, and the subsequent eclipse in Africa in 2001
(Letters, 20/27 December, p 80).
But there is still time for your readers to arrange to see this
year’s 26 February eclipse, which will be visible from the Caribbean islands
Aruba, Cura莽ao, Montserrat, Guadeloupe and Antigua.
It will last longer than the 1999 European eclipse and is less likely to be
obscured by bad weather. Hop on a plane if you can!
Letters : . . . . .
Gribbin mocks the advice given by Howard Becker in his book Tricks of the
Trade as “the things real scientists learn in the cradle”.
I would like to point out the ease with which social scientists can mock the
inability of researchers in other disciplines to take social factors into
account. This may lead to unexpected results when scientific or medical experts
assess the probable effects of anything from radioactive contamination to
screening programmes, but fail to consider conditions in the real world.
For example, expert scientific opinion on the effects of radioactivity on
sheep in Cumbria ignored local lay knowledge and farming practices, while a
programme to identify carriers of a genetic disorder had dire consequences for
the study’s female subjects, with men seeking wives outside the social group and
carrier women being rendered unmarriageable and dependent on their male
relatives (The Lancet, vol 337, p 306).
The example Gribbin gives of an incompetent researcher studying rats running
in mazes is hardly a typical piece of social science research. If such a study
has to be done, it should certainly not be done by someone who does not
understand scientific method. However, there are other methods which, to use
Gribbin’s words, a social scientist could have “patiently…tried to explain” to
him, but it is doubtful if Gribbin would “get the point”.
Letters : Seminal name
washe@rivernet.com.au
No doubt I am not the first, but here it is anyway. While watching the news,
my daughter remarked that it is odd that the man advocating human cloning is
called Dick Seed. Is it all a practical joke, or is this another example of
people’s names affecting what they do
(Feedback, 13 December)?
Letters : Lastly
East Kilbride
Nils Grande’s Oxbridge dons
(Letters, 13 December, p 57) are surely
accustomed to dispute in Latin. The Latin for “tenthly” would be
denique, but this has come to mean “lastly”. So all arguments must cease at
this point.
Letters : . . . . .
Hindhead, Surrey
I am grateful to Feedback for bringing the science of necrophony (the
technology of communicating with the dead) to a wider public.
I can advise that this technology is in current commercial use in Surrey.
Readers seeking further information are directed to clairvoyant Sheila (“Medium,
Tarot, Palmistry, private or group appointments”) whose classified advertisement
appears in this week’s Farnham Free Local Ads under the appropriate
heading “Hi-Fi, Stereo & Radio Equipment”.
Letters : . . . . .
David_McAllister@hcs-easterross.fc.uhi.ac.uk
Feedback asks: “Are computers on the other side IBM-compatible, or do the
living impaired prefer Apple Macs?”
Surely both will exist. If you arrive and find there are Macs you’re in
heaven, but if it’s IBM-compatibles you must be in hell.
Letters : Dead talk back
Hades
We are disappointed that you see fit to make light of our latest research on
communication between the living and the “living impaired”, as you so
unpleasantly nominate us
(Feedback, 10 January).
At this very moment we are busy rolling out Hades Explorer 4.0, heralding an
unparalleled increase in the volume of living-dead communications. You will be
communicating with us soon, one way or another.
Letters : Screen tests
Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
Your article implies that the medical profession in Britain is not interested
in doing any research into breast cancer screening for women in their 40s
(Forum, 3 January, p 43).
The author suggests that a trial should be urgently
mounted to test the effect on breast cancer mortality of frequent mammographic
screening by the National Health Service of women aged 40.
Just such a trial has been running in Britain since 1989, administrated by
the UK Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research on behalf of the NHS Breast
Screening Programme. In the trial, 65 000 women aged 40 and 41 have been offered
annual screening for 7 years in 33 NHS screening units around the country, and
are being followed up for between 10 and 15 years. The number of breast cancer
deaths in the study group is to be compared with that in a control group of 135
000 women not screened.
I suspect that one of the reasons why funding bodies are not committing money
to any new research of this type is that they are awaiting the results of this
very important trial.
Letters : . . . . .
andrewf@slhosiery.com.au
A typical case involves the household rainwater collection tank. Someone
empties it and enters through the access hatch to clean it and very quickly
become unconscious and dies. Going to their rescue without breathing apparatus
is a really bad idea.
Letters : Fatal rust
Cumbria
Yes, the Health and Safety Executive is very serious when it warns about
oxygen deficiency as a result of rust formation
(Feedback, 17 January).
It has long been recognised that rusting of the internal surfaces of a closed
steel vessel can remove so much oxygen that not enough remains to sustain
life.
Should an individual then enter the vessel without adequate precautions the
consequences can be fatal. Several people die each year in Britain through such
accidents. Newly fabricated or shot-blasted, carbon-steel vessels are
particularly vulnerable to this effect, especially those with large
surface-area-to-volume ratios such as heat exchangers.
Anyone wishing to find out more on such matters can refer to the HSE’s
publication, Safe Work in Confined Spaces.
Letters : . . . . .
dominic@netcomuk.co.uk
Grant Naylor describes a similar, even more ambitious project in one of his
Red Dwarf books. The plan is to send spacecraft off to trigger stars
into going supernova prematurely, spelling out a message “Drink Coca-Cola”
across the sky.
Letters : Jupiter for sale
ronny@tmx.com.au
Raleigh Roark’s mention of The Man Who Sold the Moon
(Letters, 10 January, p 51)
reminds me of Isaac Asimov’s story Buy Jupiter, in which
the human race is offered substantial remuneration by an alien race in exchange
for the planet Jupiter. After some hedging, the aliens admit that this is in
order that they may use it as an advertising billboard.
While some of the members of the human negotiating team are worried about how
the aliens’ competitors may react, they eventually agree to this
proposal鈥攎eanwhile planning to license the much more picturesque Saturn to
another alien race.
The remuneration offered was something like an indefinite supply of
humanity’s entire energy needs. I always wondered what they would squeeze out of
the competitors.
Letters : . . . . .
The Gal谩pagos Islands
I am deeply concerned that, for lack of funds, there is almost no research
being done to monitor and respond to the ecological changes taking place as a
result of El Ni帽o.
At the Charles Darwin Research Station one of our priorities is to detect new
colonisations and eradicate invading species before they can take hold. For most
alien species, once they are well established, eradication techniques are either
unknown or unaffordable. We also monitor rare species at special risk of
starvation during El Ni帽o, such as the Gal谩pagos penguins,
flightless cormorants and marine iguanas.
But while we may be awash with El Ni帽o rainfall, we are far from awash
with either funds for the station’s vital monitoring work or Ni帽o-related
research proposals from self-funded scientists. In fact, we have so far obtained
no Ni帽o-related funds and only one or two small Ni帽o-related
research proposals.
So despite the advance warning, this Ni帽o is likely to be no more
studied or mitigated in the Gal谩pagos than was the Ni帽o of
1982/83. Worldwide, much research is being done on El Ni帽o and vast sums
are being spent on mitigating its temporary effects. We hope that some fraction
of that scientific effort and money can be directed to studying the
Gal谩pagos and protecting these scientifically fascinating islands from
lasting ecological harm.
Please contact us by e-mail at cdrs@fcdarwin.org.ec or phone the
Gal谩pagos Conservation Trust in London on +44 (0)171 629 5049, or visit
the research station’s Website at
http://www.polaris.net/~jpinson/welcome.html.
Letters : Funding drought
Shaftesbury, Dorset
Your article on the Gal谩pagos paints only part of the picture
(This Week, 10 January, p 4).
It is wrong to look on the current El Ni帽o event
as an unmitigated disaster.
El Ni帽o comes frequently to the coast of Ecuador and often to the
Gal谩pagos, albeit for a far shorter period than this year. As such it is
a vital influence on the ecosystem. Where else would the plants in the arid and
semi-arid lowlands obtain their moisture?
Certainly, it is likely to have a serious impact on populations of penguins
and marine iguanas, but the albatross is a very long-lived bird and one missed
breeding season is not a problem as long as other factors such as their being
killed, accidentally or otherwise by fishermen, do not impact on the adult
population.
Some species benefit greatly from the rains. Darwin’s finches and most of the
land birds will be able to breed more than once due to the abundance of food.
Tortoises will benefit from the luxuriant vegetation for some time to come and
on Volcan Alcedo on Isabela Island, where there is a serious problem caused by
introduced goats, the prolonged rains may well ease the pressure on the
vegetation and on the tortoises that depend on it.
There is, however, a danger that already introduced plants and insects will
spread farther afield. This serves to emphasise the need for the world community
to encourage the Ecuadorian government to take radical steps to resolve the
political problems that are behind all of the conservation problems in the
islands.
Letters : . . . . .
Brussels
Recent data from Gothenburg in Sweden have shown that breast cancer mortality
was reduced by 45 per cent when mammography screening was offered every 18
months to women aged between 39 and 49. This excellent result prompted New
杏吧原创 to criticise the health authorities for their lack of enthusiasm
for screening younger women and for their unwillingness to support further
research in this field.
The National Board of Social Welfare in Sweden has in fact reacted to the new
data and recommended that counties offer mammography screening from the age of
40. However, as the cost-effectiveness is uncertain, it has also been
recommended that counties starting screening should evaluate the costs. In
Sweden, the decision on whether or not to start screening from age 40 is taken
by the individual counties.
New 杏吧原创 blames the Europe against Cancer programme for its
unwillingness to support a study on mammography screening of younger women in
the Netherlands, Finland, Italy and Norway. However, an application to fund such
a study has not been made during the past year.
You are also quick to jump to the conclusion that there is “a bias against
screening in cure-oriented medical establishments”. This is an
oversimplification. The problems involved in decisions on breast cancer
screening are far more complicated than a “cure camp” fighting a “screening
camp”.
High-quality screening does some good鈥攊t saves some lives and allows
some women with breast cancer to undergo breast-conserving surgery. But even
high-quality screening does some harm. All women have to undergo the screening
to find the few who have an undetected tumour, and the screening test is not
perfect. There are both false positive test results and false negatives.