Chew it over
How wonderful if we could all chew Namibian sticks to prevent cavities and gum disease
(11 March, p 5).
However, in light of the more than a dozen patents taken out by US and
Japanese companies on chemicals derived from the Indian neem tree (
Azadirachta indica) since 1985 and the attempts of these foreign companies
to get control of the production in India, where the many beneficial effects of
the neem have been known and used since ancient times, I cannot but wonder when
the Namibians will be declared thieves of trade-related intellectual property
rights.
Rice sink
It was an intriguing idea put forward by Maurice Ku
(1 April, p 19) that
increasing the photosynthetic performance and yield of rice by 35 per cent would
take more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus reduce global warming.
The question arises as to whether it is ethical to store this rice, with its
sequestered carbon, rather than allowing people to eat it and hence respire the
hard-earned carbon back into the atmosphere.
It is worrying how often this incomplete view of the carbon cycle is put
forward as a way of reducing the atmospheric CO2 concentration.
However, having said that, high-yield rice could lead to a reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions since less land would need to be used for paddy fields,
which are strong sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane.
I did rather like the idea of pumping rice pudding into exhausted oil wells
and coal mines.
Dog's dinner
Debora MacKenzie’s refreshing approach to the recycling of animal excrement
and waste products into the human food chain
(18 March, p 45) prompts me to draw
your readers’ attention to a new project working to the same philosophy.
In the 19th century, the explosion of Britain’s urban population led to a
vigorous controversy about the lack of land for cemeteries and the introduction,
in the face of fierce opposition from “resurrectionists”, of cremation. Times
have changed, and now the opposition is to cremation itself as a source of gases
contributing to global warming and a waste of good protein.
I am working with the pet food industry to introduce legislation to enable
people, at the end of their lives, to donate their bodies to pet food
manufacturers. The human flesh thereby recycled will release thousands of tonnes
of grain, at present used in pet foods, for feeding less fortunate children
elsewhere in the world. It is right that the British, with their love of
animals, should set the rest of the world an example.
If any of your readers would like to write to me, I will send them a draft
clause for inclusion in their will, and a “Pet-meat” donor card to carry in
their wallet or handbag.
Correction
An error in our story “On a wing and some air”
(25 March, p 14)
led to us saying the sea-launched spaceplane reaches an escape velocity of 966
kilometres per hour. This is far too low. The final escape velocity should have
read “more than 600 kilometres per minute”. Thanks to all those readers who took
the trouble to point this out.
Speed kills
I’m glad to see that New 杏吧原创 is advocating the use of devices
to prevent cars from exceeding speed limits
(25 March, p 3).
To me, this is a far more practical way of improving road safety than traffic
calming and tougher law enforcement.
At current rates of expenditure, the 拢8 billion worth of work required
in Britain for traffic calming will only be completed by 2148. When it comes to
stricter application of the law, there are all kinds of difficulties, including
the civil liberties implications of giving the police extra powers.
Your editorial argues that fitting speed limiters to cars would be unpopular.
The trouble is that no one seems to be campaigning for it, to make it better
understood and more popular. The spurious arguments of some motorists that
anti-speeding devices would reduce their “control” of the vehicle, and of
manufacturers that they make “world cars” that can’t be tailored to a single
market, need to be confronted.
Letter
The conclusion that smoothing out and reducing speeds in busy urban areas
would reduce the number of accidents is little more than a statement of the
obvious. More relevant is the fact that accidents now are very few compared with
the passenger miles travelled and it could well be that they are nearing an
irreducible minimum, where the number of different causes equals the number of
accidents.
The factor common to most accidents is that complex phenomenon, bad driving
(or bad walking), and while there are a handful of irredeemably bad drivers
about, the real difficulty lies in the fact that all of us are bad drivers from
time to time. No amount of tinkering with statutory speed limits will affect
this. It can only be dealt with by improved awareness, and that requires
education.
Trials on trial
There have been calls for a moratorium on gene therapy research following the
death of a patient taking part in a clinical trial of gene therapy
(18 March, p 3
and p 5).
It seems that some of the main issues around this event relate more to the
conduct of the trial itself than any adverse effect of the experimental therapy.
It is up to researchers, and those supervising them, to ensure that any clinical
trial is adequately monitored by a data and safety monitoring committee
throughout the conduct of the trial.
It seems that the moratorium should be on bad research (or good research done
badly) rather than on any particular experimental treatment.
Macho elk
Almost since it was discovered, the poor old Irish elk has been ridiculed as
an example of an animal that went extinct because it was rubbish
(25 March, p 36).
We used to think that way about dinosaurs too, but nowadays we all accept
that they were dynamic, sexy beasts who were just unlucky because they happened
to be around when a comet struck Earth, or whatever.
Adrian Barnett presents the idea that the elk died out because climate change
caused the composition of vegetation to shift, making it difficult for them to
obtain the minerals to make big antlers. The problem with this argument is that
only the stags had antlers. Females would have been unaffected.
The function of big antlers is to enable some males to get the upper hand
over the rest. In today’s deer species, antlers get larger with age. In red
deer, harem-holding stags tend to be at least five years old with impressive
antlers, but males are sexually mature at nine months when they have no antlers,
just a couple of bumps.
Biologists keep falling into the trap of thinking big, competitive males are
necessary for the good of the species. They’re not. Farmers who wish to maximise
the production of sheep or cattle find the vast majority of males surplus to
their requirements. I am sure that the Irish elk could have got by with a
handful of young unantlered males.
Taking a leaf
I am surprised that your article on meat and protein
(18 March, p 32) does
not mention the process of leaf fractionation developed by the late N. W. Pirie.
In my view, this will be the principal source of human protein in two or three
decades, as it has several advantages.
Leaf fractionation produces up to 10 times as much protein per hectare as
when the land is used to grow food for animals. It does not require artificially
fixed nitrogen, which is made using a large amount of energy. It is already
being used on lucerne, or alfalfa, in France, Hungary and the US to make
supplementary feed for pigs and poultry. As lucerne is a legume, it adds
nitrogen to the soil.
The process can be applied to almost any fresh green leaves, including weeds
such as water hyacinth and nettles. The leaf protein it produces contains no
animal fats, and the fibrous residue is an excellent ruminant feed.
Feeding trials in 14 countries have shown that regular leaf concentrate
consumption promotes good health and weight gain, increases haemoglobin and
vitamin A status, and reduces the frequency and severity of illnesses. One
series of trials in which leaf protein was used to supplement the diet of badly
nourished children for six months showed that the weight increase was nearly
three times as great as that of those whose diet was unaltered.