Letters : Banging the drum
Queensway, London
In your editorial about creation scientists you say that to study
evolutionary events as scientists they should, at least, be able to say, “I
favour the creationist view but I’m prepared to accept that it might be wrong”
(21 August, p 3).
But how often do we say, “I favour the big bang theory but I’m prepared to
accept that it might be wrong”? Not very often. We may be just as guilty of
being too certain about our favoured creation theories. A theory is a theory, so
it might be proved wrong, but that possibility is hardly ever considered when it
comes to the big bang.
We might do well to remind ourselves that we have not proved that the
Universe is expanding. We infer that it is because the red shifts we see look
like the result of the Doppler effect. But we do not have any other way to
measure the velocity of receding galaxies and verify the theory. So we infer
that the Universe is expanding because it looks as though it is.
For many years, the Earth was believed to be the centre of the Universe,
largely because it looks as though it is, and evidence to the contrary was
ignored. There is no reason to believe that red shifts are not caused by the
Doppler effect, but a tiny loss of photon energy for every light second of
travel through allegedly empty space might also explain the observations.
If it transpired that the Universe is not expanding, there would probably not
have been a big bang. Part of the attraction of the big bang theory is that,
perhaps subconsciously, it makes us feel that there was a particular moment when
God created the Universe. But if we ignore the possibility that this could be
wrong, we are no better than the creation scientists.
Letters : A priori position
Didcot, Oxfordshire
Helen Wallace of Greenpeace justifies opposition to field research on
genetically modified crops by citing the campaign group’s similar opposition to
research into the underground disposal of nuclear waste
(14 August, p 46).
However, her analysis of the refusal of Nirex’s plans for an underground
laboratory near Sellafield is misleading. In the absence of information from an
underground experimental facility, Greenpeace and other opponents were able to
claim that the site was unsuitable. Without the research information, Nirex
could not show whether the site was or was not suitable.
In consequence, the balance of views accepted by the local government
inspector was that there were indications that the site was not suitable. A
recent open meeting on radioactive waste convened by the Geological Society and
the British Geological Survey, attended by geologists who had appeared for and
against Nirex, came to the conclusion that only underground disposal could
provide a long-term, safe and sustainable solution, and that underground
research should be supported. It appears that Greenpeace’s aim is to prevent
research that might contradict its already decided position.
Letters : Language explosion
Wellington, New Zealand
Low levels of genetic diversity in modern human populations may provide
evidence that our ancestors teetered on the brink of extinction as a result of genocide
(14 August, p 32).
But perhaps the low diversity is an echo of the sudden appearance of the first true human language.
Consider the situation of the early hominids. Natural selection would have
been pushing all of them towards better communication skills, and to developing
a true language. Perhaps rather than being a gradual incremental process, the
final breakthrough involved a kind of cultural quantum leap. Possession of the
first true language would give the group that acquired it an enormous
competitive advantage over other hominid groups.
True languages can only easily be transmitted from adults to children. So it
would be very difficult for hominid adults in the competing groups to acquire
the new language by imitation. Only the children of the original speaking group
would be able to fully acquire the new language, and they in turn would pass it
on to their children.
The numbers of “true speakers” would rapidly expand. Nonspeaking groups would
be despised as subhuman and not worthy of intermarriage. Any gene exchange that
did occur would be outwards from the conquering “true speakers” into the other
doomed nonspeaking groups via processes such as rape. So the expansion of the
true language would mirror the genetic expansion of the small original speaking
group.
Letters : Training terrorists?
North Chailey, East Sussex
Child development at a breakneck pace! I was fascinated to read Helene
Guldberg’s opinion that children would benefit from taking unsupervised risks in
“potentially dangerous” playgrounds
(4 September, p 47).
In support of this view, she cites several studies that appear to show that
unsupervised play helps children to negotiate social rules and develop their
own. Taking risks goes hand in hand with developing new skills. She does not say
what these skills might be, but urban terrorism does spring to mind.
On a more serious note, I wonder how physically disadvantaged children would
develop their social skills by “dangling from ropes at great heights” in a
situation where “adults are told to back off”.
Letters : Testing Ariane
wmortens@estec.esa.nl
In the article on the failure of Ariane flight 501 and one of the
software-testing techniques that grew out of it
(31 July, p 7),
Paul Marks writes: “The European Space Agency was slated for its lax software-testing
routines.”
Wrong. ESA’s software-testing routines were never criticised, they were not
even in use for Ariane 5. The management of their development was delegated to
the French national space agency, CNES. In any case, only the lack of
application of their routines鈥攏ot the routines themselves鈥攚as
criticised.
Letters : Cosmic engineers
Great Missenden, Bucks
I was intrigued by your article on the Universe-trashing dangers of
high-energy physics
(28 August, p 24).
It’s a remarkable thought that by
exploring such extremes of the envelope of reality, physicists may be able to
engineer matter and space-time into forms never before attained in all the
Universe’s long history, forms that may be implicit in the laws of physics, but
unexpressed in nature.
Perhaps nature has been waiting for someone like us to come along. In my
recent novel Time, I’ve explored the question of our responsibility as
(presumably) the first intelligent species. What if it’s our “duty” to alter the
evolution of the universe by initiating quantum vacuum collapse?
Letters : Cat's timing
Blewbury, Oxfordshire
I read your item about animals in Britain getting caught crossing the road
when the clocks go back an hour with the end of British Summer Time
(Feedback, 28 August),
and you sounded perhaps a touch sceptical.
When I was a veterinary nurse, we always got an increase in the number of
cats hurt in road accidents in October when the clocks changed. Obviously, cats
take a little while to adjust to the change in the timing of rush-hour traffic,
and when it gets darker an hour earlier (by our reckoning) they try to cross the
road, aren’t seen, and get run over. We never seemed to get an increase in
casualties for any other species.
Letters : Potato prey
CZetie@gigaweb.com
The answer to Feedback’s question
(21 August)
about what became of the wild
potatoes that were “12 000 feet high” and collected by nomadic Indians is quite
simple: like the woolly mammoth, the sabre-toothed tiger and other giant
species, they were hunted to extinction鈥攊n this case by nomadic
Indians.
Unlike their smaller cousins, which were able to escape detection by
burrowing underground, the giant potatoes were unable to hide. There is even a
theory that the Inca pyramids were originally created in the image of the giant
potatoes, perhaps in the hope that worship and rituals could persuade them to
return. Over time, the origins of these temples were forgotten and giant potato
worship evolved into the formal religion that the Spanish conquistadors
discovered.
Letters : Profit from fear
Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex
Jozef Steenhout seems to misunderstand insurance companies
(Letters, 4 September, p 53).
In my experience, it is precisely because flying is so safe
that they have offices at airports. There is nothing an insurance company likes
so much as a high perceived risk matched with a low actual risk.
If people were really concerned about the risks of flying, they would press
for airlines to install rear-facing seats, giving much more support in the event
of a crash. The punters, however, always want to face the way they are
going.
Letters : Pork chop
Ramsgate, Kent
Perhaps somebody involved in food hygiene鈥攐r should we call it “real
food destruction”?鈥攃an tell me why it is now impossible to buy pigs
chitterlings (intestines)? My butcher tells me that since April this year the
sale of these mortally dangerous items has been banned.
When are the food regulators, like those who came up with the non-science
behind the beef-on-the-bone ban in Britain, going to let us choose what we eat?
I am sure that the people who make these decisions eat pre-prepared meals, or
“packet muck” as I call them, all the time, and resent those of us who use our
taste buds to make our own choices.
There is, of course, an ecological aspect as well. I understand that around
300 000 pigs are slaughtered each week in Britain. This, according to my rough
calculations, means that about 1500 tonnes (50 large lorry loads) of additional
animal waste has to be disposed of somewhere.
Letters : Get real
justin.rigden@gropep.com.au
Surely a “virtual reality simulator” is just reality itself? Maybe the one on
the Bognor Regis pier that Feedback mentions
(28 August)
was just an empty room.
Letters : Correction:
In our report from the IEEE Special Interest Group on Graphics meeting
(This Week, 28 August, p 13)
a new technique for manipulating transparent objects was mistakenly called
“environment mapping”. This should have read “environment matting”.