Patent progress
Joseph Malkevitch’s argument that the issuing of patents on new mathematical
technologies is choking the flow of ideas into the public domain may be unduly pessimistic
(30 October, p 50).
It is unlikely to have any significant impact.
In fact, the patenting of processes close to pure mathematics is nothing new,
and has not affected decisions to publish or collaborate informally with
colleagues. An interesting historical example is the publication in 1965 of a
short paper entitled “An Algorithm for the Machine Calculation of Complex
Fourier Series” by James Cooley鈥攖hen an employee of IBM鈥攁nd John
Tukey. This was the famous Cooley-Tukey paper, which describes the fast Fourier
algorithm or FFT.
The Cooley-Tukey paper was only published at the behest of IBM patent
attorney Frank Thomas who, after attending a seminar given by Cooley, recognised
his algorithm as patentable. IBM wished to avoid others receiving patent rights
for Cooley’s algorithm and so decided to publish.
Gone birdwatching
May I add a historical footnote to Dana Mackenzie’s brilliant article on
understanding randomness
(6 November, p 44)?
In the early 1960s, Andrei Kolmogorov gave a lecture in Belgrade in which he
said that he had thought it impossible to define randomness. But he had recently
learnt from a young Swedish mathematician named Per Martin-L枚f that one
could say that the binary digit sequence specifying a real number x
could be defined as random if the shortest binary sequence specifying the
program for computing x was longer than x itself.
That it was Kolmogorov, not Martin-L枚f, who went on to found the theory
of computational complexity may perhaps reflect the latter’s enthusiasm for
birdwatching.
Listening in the rain
I read with interest your article on amplifying neural signals along the spinal cord
(13 November, p 4).
While this might help people who are unable to walk, there may be other applications
too鈥攕uch as boosting auditory nerve function in those who have impaired hearing.
Now 50, I have been hearing-impaired since the age of three. My impairment is
nerve-related, and I have worn hearing aids for most of my life.
While hearing aids help鈥攁nd they have come a long way over the past 45
years鈥攖hey do have their limitations. First, there is the problem with
oscillation, or feedback, that is particularly annoying at times. Second, if I
go swimming, the hearing aid must be removed, leaving me, for all practical
purposes, totally deaf. The aid must be protected against heavy rain, too.
If these neural amplifiers were not subject to the same limitations, they
could be a good solution for people like myself.
Elementary naming
I congratulate Michael Brooks on a splendidly imaginative article on the
synthetic heavy elements
(2 October, p 38).
I shuddered, however, at his reference to the naming of these elements after the
scientists or institutions responsible for their creation.
Many years ago, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
proposed a system for the naming of newly synthesised elements based on a
combination of Greek and Latin prefixes chosen to provide a unique symbol for
each element. For example, element 114 would be ununquadium (symbol Uuq),
element 198 would be unennoctium (Ueo), and so on.
Unfortunately, the simplicity of this scheme upset the delicate digestive
system of the average scientist and was rejected, despite its obvious
advantages.
Mythical leaves
Tom Marlow asks which plant produced the thorns that were used to hold papers
together in Indian offices
(6 November, p 60). They came from Acacia
arabica, or the gum arabic tree, which is very common in India. Its thorns
have been used for a variety of purposes. A very common one, especially in
southern India, is tacking dry leaves together to make cups called dronas for
soup.
The drona is mentioned in the epic story Mahabharata. One of the
heroes, Dronacharya, was so named because his father’s seed fell at the sight of
a nymph, but the father preserved it in a drona instead of letting it fall on
the ground.
Fact or fiction?
Jeff Hecht was told by the US Patent and Trademark Office that fictional
inventions do not invalidate patents
(23 October, p 59).
But this isn’t necessarily the case elsewhere.
A couple of years ago I attended a presentation by the British patent office
where they gave an example of a patent for a “cat doorbell”, which was refused
because the idea had previously appeared in The Beano comic’s Dennis
the Menace cartoon strip. Am I to take it that The Beano is not
fictional? If so, why isn’t Billy the Whizz in the Olympic team?
Correction
Inside Science No 125 “Roots of history”
(13 November) states that
salicylic acid originates in the leaves of a species of willow and is “better
known to most of us as aspirin”. In fact, it is salicin which is extracted from
willow bark. Salicin is a source of salicylic acid, which does have a
painkilling effect but is toxic in large doses. Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic
acid, is an artificial derivative of salicylic acid that has similar analgesic
effects but is less toxic.
Nuclear is not new
If the British government is so concerned that investment for renewable
energy technologies could be diverted into older, unsustainable technologies
under the Kyoto Protocol
(13 November, p 12),
why did it block moves to exclude nuclear power from the Clean Development
Mechanism at the recent Climate Change Summit?
The aim of the CDM is to enable industrialised countries to buy emission
reduction credits and to assist sustainable development in non-industrialised
countries. The CDM should help drive a renewable energy future, not prop up a
failed and unpopular experiment.
Wilting monks
Is it only Mozart’s music that boosts brain power, or can Gregorian chant do
the same
(6 November, p 34)?
In Chant by Katherine Le M茅e, the story is told of French ear
specialist Alfred Tomatis’s visit to a Benedictine monastery in France in the
early 1960s. At the time, the Second Vatican Council had just recommended
replacing chanted Latin with the vernacular for prayer.
He found that monks who had survived on the customary three or four hours
sleep a night were now tired and prone to illness. Putting it down to too little
sleep, the abbot allowed more鈥攂ut to no avail. The introduction of meat
into the monks’ vegetarian diet didn’t help either.
The situation deteriorated until 1967 when Tomatis was invited back to the
monastery. When he arrived, seventy of the ninety monks were lying listlessly in
their cells. He found that as well as suffering from fatigue, the monks’ hearing
was also impaired. His treatment was a device called an Electronic Ear, which
was supposed to improve hearing. He also recommended the restoration of daily
chanting.
Within nine months the monks had experienced an extraordinary recovery. Most
were able to return to the extended periods of prayer, limited sleep and
demanding physical work that had been part of their routine for centuries.