Taking the plunge
Forty years after Alister Hardy first published his idea in your pages (17
March 1960, p 642), we are again considering the idea that water played a far
greater role in our past than previously thought
(25 November, p 28). Why then,
has the scientific world paid so little attention to such a plausible
theory?
I see it like this. We are far better swimmers than our nearest relative the
chimpanzee. We have a cluster of physical traits鈥攎ost of which Kate
Douglas listed in her article鈥攖hat may or may not be aquatic. There are
two reasons for this. First, the traits are aquatic adaptations, in which case
it’s time for the kind of shift in thinking that the eminent
palaeoanthropologist Phillip Tobias was talking about. Secondly, the traits are
not aquatic at all, in which case the orthodox theories will have to explain our
ability to swim and other physical traits better than they have done so far.
Freeze it
So, we have 1000 years to go before melting ice and the subsequent rising sea
levels wipe out huge areas of our living space
(25 November, p 5). Well, I don’t
really see a problem鈥攊f you take into account future technological
advances.
For starters, we may eventually be capable of large scale refreezing and
maintenance of the relevant bits of our planet by ecologically sound methods. Or
how about creating an ice moon/planet by placing the excess water in a parking
orbit around the Earth or Sun respectively, utilising the space elevator so
beloved of science fiction (and fact) writers? Of course, the freezing comes
free. And the possible lack of water for Moon and Mars colonists is no longer a
problem.
I will leave the problem of lowering the mass of our planet to the scientists
around at the time.
Unconscious denial
Peter Halligan and David Oakley show a touching concern for their readers’
sensibilities
(18 November, p 34). However, I don’t think they need to worry. I
myself was a little upset to discover that my conscious self has no real
existence; but only for a moment. Halligan and Oakley’s entire article, as they
would be the first to admit, is a mere by-product of their own unconscious
impulses. Any appearance of rational argument, or objective truth, is a part of
that sheer illusion which they are trying so hard to dispel. Hence there is no
reason for me to take them seriously if I don’t feel like it.
All the evidence
You claim
(4 November, p 30) that “genome research looks set to transform
medicine beyond recognition”. But in science, as opposed to science fiction, the
evidence against is surely as important as the evidence in favour. It was
surprising, therefore, that you consistently downplayed the role of the
environment in your articles.
Since you highlight cancer as an inherently genetic disease, a recent cancer
study on Scandinavian twins (The New England Journal of
Medicine, vol 343, p 78) may serve as an example of the exclusion of
evidence pointing in a different direction. Two types of twins were compared:
monozygotic twins, who share all their genes, and dizygotic twins, who share 50
per cent of their genes, like singleton brothers and sisters.
As expected, the chance of inheriting the same genetic disease was higher
within pairs of monozygotic twins than for dizygotic twins, but these
concordance rates were still modest. Monozygotic twins with breast cancer had a
concordance rate of 0.13, while for prostate cancer it was 0.18. In other words,
if one twin was affected, the large majority of co-twins escaped the disease,
even though they had exactly the same genotype.
This suggests that inheritance makes only a minor contribution to
susceptibility.
Evidently, geneticists will have to grapple with a large chunk of
environmental variation leading to cancer and other diseases, before the dream
of drugs tailored to individual requirements becomes a reality.
Skin saver
Terje Christensen suggests that octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), a filter
frequently used in commercial sunscreens, could be toxic
(7 October, p 13). We
have studied OMC on a number of occasions, using fresh human skin removed during
cosmetic operations. In none of our studies did applying OMC to the skin have
any impact on the viability of the cells. OMC was able to protect the skin’s
immune system cells from the immunosuppressive effects of ultraviolet light.
Our studies show that OMC is not toxic to human skin cells when it is applied
directly to the skin, and that it is effective at preventing sunburn and
ultraviolet immunosuppression.
White out
Penguins topple over whenever aircraft fly overhead and have gained
considerable press attention recently for doing so. For example, Reuters quotes
Stuart Matthews, the operations officer of HMS Endurance, as saying: “The
penguins always look up at the helicopters and follow them all the way until
they fall over backwards.” Now scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have
been dispatched to the chilly wastes to investigate.
Penguins, of course, have black backs and white fronts. Biologists call this
counter-shading. It means that when the birds are swimming they are harder to
see from both above and below, allowing them to hunt fish and avoid being eaten
by seals. But what should they do to avoid predators when they are standing on a
featureless white snowfield? Clearly they need to hide their black backs and to
display their white fronts. The penguins see aircraft as a potential danger, and
lie down supine to make themselves disappear.
A view to kill
Birds of prey spiral into their prey with a head angle of 40 degrees, because
this allows them to keep an eye on their prey at all times
(25 November, p 14).
But surely the spiralling approach is not a product of the bird’s vision, rather
the other way round. Ground-based prey has an annoying habit of moving, and an
analysis of a parabolic spiral should show that it allows the bird to retain
sufficient air-to-ground speed to counter sudden movement of the prey with
relatively minor flight adjustments, without acquiring too much vertical
momentum. If a direct-line approach is taken, the bird is far too committed to a
specific direction of attack. To counter sudden movements, it would need to
approach at such a great rate that it would risk the embarrassment of barrelling
straight into the ground.
Morse madness
It’s no coincidence that cellphones use Morse for the short message service
(Feedback, 18 November).
The designers鈥攐r perhaps the programmers鈥攐f
these phones are clearly familiar with Morse code. One of the many options for a
message alert tone on my Nokia phone is called “Ascending”. This consists of a
long sequence of blips and beeps that increase in volume until the “Read” button
is pressed. Being “Morse-literate”, I immediately recognised the message
“connecting people”鈥攁 phrase much used by Nokia in its advertising.
Delayed action
Why have European ministers only now decided to ban for just six months the
feeding of meat and bonemeal to all livestock? It has been known for years that
this is the source of BSE.
Fuel economics
Your article on hydrogen as a fuel
(25 November, p 34) was cheering, but I
was disappointed to see how you treated the “economics” of solar hydrogen. The
cost of producing energy from fossil fuel includes the value of the
assets鈥攃oal, petroleum or whatever鈥攃onsumed. And the proper basis
for that value is not historic cost but replacement cost. Economics therefore
requires us to add the cost of replacing these fossil stocks to the cost of
extracting them. Anything less than this means that we are counting the running
down of capital as though it were income, and reckoning the reduction of our
wealth as an indicator of prosperity. To say that the replacement, or renewal
costs, are uneconomic compared with the cost of digging up or moving capital
seems to be the grossest fallacy in basic commercial accountancy, let alone
economics.
Watch out
While your cartoon
(2 December, p 53) about wearing a helmet in case of
collision with a pedestrian may appear to be funny, it makes light of a serious
issue, namely, that of transferring the danger from car/cyclist to
cyclist/pedestrian.
An erstwhile colleague of mine justified cycling on the pavement on the basis
that any injuries he caused to pedestrians were far less severe than any
injuries he might receive from a car. Apart from the staggering selfishness of
such an attitude, not to mention the illegality of such behaviour, this is just
not correct. A fall to the pavement resulting from a heavy knock by a cyclist
can lead to broken bones, particularly in the elderly or those with
osteoporosis, and knocking one’s head on a garden wall or kerb-edge can be
fatal.
Bicycles travel much faster than pedestrians and as they are for the most
part silent the pedestrian is often unaware of them, making it impossible to get
out of harm’s way, particularly when they approach from behind. Lights, too, are
rarely used, so one has even less chance of avoiding danger at night.
It would be salutary to see figures comparing injuries caused to cyclists
with those caused by cyclists, and to see how they have risen as cycling on the
pavement has increased.
My same erstwhile colleague now has a powerful motorbike (as do I), and I am
wondering just how long it will be before I see him riding this down the
pavement, using the same selfish argument to justify the practice.
Perkin in peace
The review of Simon Garfield’s Mauve
(28 October, p 50) lamented
that William Perkin’s grave had been lost. As Perkin’s great-great
grand-daughter, I would like to correct this. Perkin is buried in the Christ
Church graveyard at Roxeth in Harrow.
Far sighted
A recent advertisement in New 杏吧原创 stated it was for a
distance-learning course in astronomy. Well, it would be, wouldn’t it?