Cat killers
Sidney Holt is “disappointed” with New 杏吧原创 for joining the
“unscientific anti-cat campaign”
(26 May, p 61).
But the logic he uses is flawed.
He suggests in the cats’ defence that “the birds killed by cats in suburban
gardens are . . . above natural numbers, having been fed by humans”. Firstly,
this ignores the slaughter of some 6 million reptiles and amphibians, few of
whom are fed by humans. But more interestingly, by extrapolation, one could
imply that any such population of creatures sustained by human kindness is a
legitimate target for slaughter. How then could he defend his beloved cats from
a similar treatment?
If any New 杏吧原创 readers could suggest an appropriate and legal
pet that would kill a few million cats per year, then Holt, myself (and the
birds, reptiles and amphibians) could all be happy.
Letter
Your editorial criticises the optimism of the Royal Society report on
applying genetic modification research to animal farming, saying: “. . . the
real movers and shakers in this revolution will always be the big companies.
Their interest will be in creating fast-growing, superlean pigs and cows for
rich farmers, not animals that resist parasites in the developing world.”
This is true enough now, and may be so in the future, but it need not be so.
This is the role in which public research funding can be most effective. The
capital investment needed to equip and staff a second-to-none GM research
laboratory is modest. The cost of building one fighter plane or refitting a
nuclear sub would do it, with change to spare for the tea kitty. The big bucks
are not spent in research but in turning research findings into marketable
products.
A coherent GM research policy, both national and supranational, and
participation in public-private partnerships in commercial development, will
allow governments to help shape the scope and applicability of
GM technology. In doing so, they will be able to legislate and enforce far
better regulatory frameworks for the industry. All it takes is the foresight and
political will to do it.
Altered animals
Your editorial comment regarding the usefulness of producing genetically
modified cattle resistant to trypanosomiasis asks a serious question about the
knock-on effects of genetic engineering
(26 May, p 3). While cattle farmers
might approve of the new strains of livestock, I am 100 per cent certain that
many of the dedicated researchers and guardians in Africa’s protected areas will
be less than pleased.
The tsetse fly and its Trypanosoma parasitic companions represent
one of the most important factors limiting the number of livestock encroaching
on protected areas. Substantial vegetation that provides the biting flies’
habitat makes much of the bush a no-go area for domesticated livestock.
Producing trypanosomiasis-resistant animals would have the effect of opening up
the last remaining wilderness areas in parts of Africa to the ravages of cattle
and their masters. What seems like a good idea is likely to have dire
consequences for the local habitats and wildlife.
It seems to me that much of the debate about GM organisms ignores the
complexity of the systems into which they are likely to be introduced. It is
likely that many of the revolutionary GM strains of organisms will have similar
knock-on effects. While they may not harm anything directly, their very
existence may be enough to upset the balance of ecosystems in ways that we have
not anticipated or are unable to predict.
Moral restraint?
I am grateful to your correspondent Stephen Heyer for pointing out that it
was the religious and moral rules discarded during the 1960s that previously had
a moderating influence on the universal human lusts for wealth, power and sex
(12 May, p 57).
Who knows what terrible things might have been done to the indigenous peoples
of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australasia by the empire builders of various
religious and moral European countries had they not been so restrained.
Lab coats are just for the boys
Once upon a time, a 15-year-old schoolgirl wrote a letter to New
杏吧原创, and it was published on 2 October 1993. She remarked how sexist
it was that she had to buy a lab coat made for a boy鈥攇orilla-length arms,
small chest (the coat, not the boys).
Well, that schoolgirl is about to need a different type of white
coat鈥攁nd just for clarification, not a straitjacket鈥攁s she is about
to qualify as a dentist. So she goes to a well-known retailer of medical-type
uniforms. And guess what? The dentist’s tunic they sell is tight in the same
places as the lab coat was (perhaps more so), and loose in the places it was
loose. And there’s a new obstacle, too: the press studs are on the right instead
of the left.
So eight years on I have the same problem. But now I draw a more cynical
conclusion. Male dentists/medics/scientists wear white coats because they can
put them through the hospital laundry, and so avoid another domestic duty.
I’ve decided I shall wear what I want at work. Just because it isn’t white
doesn’t mean it’s not clean. Black is more slimming anyway. I shall choose which
stereotypes to take advantage of.
And she lived happily ever after because she could follow fashions at a whim,
and still have a career . . . The End.
Letter
Japan may decide to increase the voltage of its electricity supply from 100
to 230 volts, but this will not necessarily produce the boom in sales of
consumer goods that manufactures might hope for.
First, many electronic household goods, such as TVs and computers, have
“switch mode” power supplies capable of operating on a wide range of supply
voltages, and would operate perfectly well on 230 volts instead of 100 without
any modification.
Secondly, presumably there would be a flourishing cottage industry fitting
100-volt appliances with transformers to enable them to operate on 230
volts.
Big switch-on
I read with interest that Japan is planning to raise the voltage of its
electrical power grid, thereby saving 1 per cent of electricity consumption due
to reduced transmission losses
(2 June, p 6).
One might ask why the US, apparently in the grip of an energy crisis, has not
already upgraded its energy transmission network in a similar way? Do they have
any plans, or have the oil barons found an argument to justify this ongoing
waste?
Nothing works
A way of solving the ethical dilemma over placebos
(26 May, p 34) is to
explain to the patient that in your opinion the remedy is a placebo and that
since the placebo effect has been shown scientifically to be real there is a
good chance that the remedy will work. A truthful explanation with no spin.
Natural healing
As a 20-year veteran of being ear-bashed on just about every “alternative”
regime that one could imagine
(26 May, p 28), I have arrived at one simple
conclusion: yes, scientifically implausible treatments often do appear to work,
but unfortunately “appear” is the operative word.
It seems to me that people keep using or administering these remedies because
they have a clear memory of the treatments working for them in the past. In all
my years as an outside observer, I have never once seen any compelling evidence
that they do anything at all. The adherents seem to get sick and recover at
precisely the same rate as everybody else.
The obvious conclusion is that they really do “remember” the treatment
working, both for themselves and others, but it’s simply a case of false-memory
syndrome.
As for the heart-warming story about the homeopath Bob Leckridge and the
little boy who hated buttons, I’m afraid I have to be a total curmudgeon and
say: yes, lovely story, but did it really happen like that? I’ve heard similar
glowing stories from parents of children with behavioural and other problems,
but I’ve never once seen any hard evidence of any such dramatic results. What
seems to happen is that the normal鈥攊f sometimes protracted鈥攃hildhood
process of “growing out” of problems becomes magically “time compressed” in the
memories of the loving parents.
Now you see it
Patrick Wise asks: “How do I know whether or not the light in my fridge goes
out when I close the door?”
(19 May, p 55).
The low-tech answer from a long-in-the-tooth physicist is: leave the door
closed for an hour. Open the door and quickly feel the light bulb. Assuming it’s
a conventional tungsten filament light source鈥攁nd I’ve never seen anything
else used in a domestic fridge鈥攊f it’s cold, the light was off prior to
the door being opened. If it’s warm, then the switch is faulty.
No doubt there are many other approaches, depending on your discipline. An
electrical engineer, for example, would measure the current consumption to see
if it drops when the door is closed. An occupational hygienist would measure
light levels inside with the door closed. A statistician could prove that there
is a 99.95 per cent chance that the switch does work correctly every time. A
philosopher might argue that it doesn’t matter anyway. And an anarchist would
deliberately leave the door open . . .
Letter
In my fridge is a small plastic pig with a light sensor in his tummy. When I
open the fridge door, the light causes the pig to emit a very irritating
electronic grunting sound which fortunately stops as soon as the door is
closed.
Keeping the light
As a former Trinity House lighthouse keeper, I was interested to read the
article about Michael Faraday and his connection with Trinity House
(26 May, p 54).
I joined the lighthouse service in February 1979, and after a week at Nash
Point near Bridgend in south Wales I was ordered to spend a
month on the Smalls lighthouse, from 14 February to 14 March.
At approximately 18 miles offshore, the Smalls is the most remote Trinity
House lighthouse in the service.
Condensation in the cramped living quarters was a problem even in the late
20th century, but not due to burning whale oil. When I was there, the domestic
light inside the lighthouse was produced by a metal halide bulb powered by
electrical generators. These engines had to be very compact, because the rooms
in the tower were only about 10 feet in diameter, so the generators could not
deliver enough power for cooking and heat as well. This was done with Calor gas,
which produces a great deal of condensation on the cold masonry walls of the
lighthouse.
To give the reader an idea of the thickness of the wall, a person could sit
in the space between the outer storm shutters and the inside window. So, during
the severe weather that occurs in February and March, it was quite usual for us
to sit with our feet tucked up to keep them out of the pools of water that had
run down the walls, even though we used to mop up the water every half an hour
or so.
The problem was finally solved by a lucky find. One of the principal keepers
at the time discovered a 750-watt electric fire in his attic. The engines were
just capable of supporting this extra load, provided we were careful about other
loads put on the domestic circuit.
Finally, any readers who are interested in pharology, should visit the
Association of Lighthouse Keepers’ website at www.lighthouse.fsnet.co.uk
Twice dead
I was interested to read the article about genetically engineered vines
(26 May, p 6).
Apparently “Pierce’s disease attacks the vine’s xylem and kills it”. This is
remarkably clever of the virus, since xylem is surely already dead.
Wrap it up
Why is Rod Kebble thinking of disposing of the plastic covers in which his
New 杏吧原创 supplement arrived
(26 May, p 61)?
Why not be environmentally friendly and reuse it?
Magazine wrappers are the basis of my filing system, along with used A4
envelopes and cereal boxes. They can also be chopped into pieces to serve as
covers for the yogurt pots I use as glue containers in class. They have myriad
uses. Rod could try and find out 100 ways to reuse New 杏吧原创 plastic
bags.
Vaccine trigger
The idea of making an HIV vaccine from live HIV that can only replicate in
the presence of a trigger substance is an interesting one
(26 May, p 17), but
the choice of doxycycline for the trigger is somewhat unfortunate.
As I learned when visiting my travel clinic a fortnight ago, doxycycline is
the WHO’s drug of choice for protecting people against malaria in areas where it
is resistant to mefloquine, and for people for whom mefloquine is
unsuitable.
As many areas with high HIV infection rates also have endemic malaria, the
idea of an HIV vaccine that converts to active HIV when exposed to a standard
antimalarial is less than appealing.
It might be of use in the poorer countries which cannot afford prophylaxis
and rely instead on childhood-acquired immunity to malaria, but realistically
these are the countries least able to afford any HIV treatment.
One hopes the University of Amsterdam team can find an alternative trigger
substance that is not liable to be used for any other purpose in the areas where
the vaccine would potentially be deployed.
Terrorist peril
Rob Edwards’s story about turning MOX fuel into bombs is nothing really new
(2 June, p 4).
It is a scare story, which does not take into account the
real-life facts in Western society. (We do not really know what is happening in
Russia, where the downfall of the socialist society has lamentably sometimes
resulted in a breakdown of even the most elementary nuclear security).
The fact that possession of plutonium would be a potent terrorist threat is
obvious. Just because of that, security in all facilities which handle
plutonium, such as those of British Nuclear Fuels, is extremely tight. The MOX
fuel, because it has a somewhat higher radiation field than natural uranium
fuel, is always handled in heavy shielded containers. So theft is not easy; it
is practically impossible.
If any was stolen鈥攁nd there is no known example in the MOX industry of
this happening鈥攖he radiation field of the material would make the culprit
easy to detect. It would take a would-be terrorist months, if not years, to make
a bomb, and the intelligence community would have plenty of time to work out
detection schemes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and, in Europe, the Euratom
safeguards, keep account of every gram of MOX. It is impossible for terrorists
to swipe kilograms of it unnoticed and then play with it.
Letter
Attach a thermocouple to the bulb and leave the meter outside the fridge; on
most of these devices the leads are thin enough for you to be able to close the
door on them. If you don’t get a steady rise in temperature, the light is
off.
If you have a camera with a timed shutter release, leave that inside and see
whether the film is fogged when you develop it.
Excessive expenses
The problem of truncated subject lines is not confined to e-mails
(Feedback,12 May).
I still cringe at the memory of an item that appeared on my company
credit card statement some years ago.
On a company trip to New York, I had taken my host to the popular musical
then running called The Greatest Little Whorehouse in Texas to thank
her for her hospitality. When I got my bill, the item read “Whorehouse in
Texas鈥�$200″. The finance director was furious. Not only was it
immoral but I had wasted time travelling across the whole of the US in order to
satisfy my needs.
Moment in time
In Michael Brooks’s article about time travel
(19 May, p 26), Ronald Mallett
talks about creating a “closed time-like loop” time machine that would allow
travel back to the moment it was switched on.
The exact moment such a machine came into being would be recorded and
remembered as a landmark in human history. Time tourists from the future would
inevitably want to travel back to it. Suddenly a vast mass of people from
different future ages would appear at the entrance of the machine, presumably
attempting to occupy the same space. I’m not quite sure what the effect of this
would be, but I suspect that it would be bad for both the machine and the
travellers.