Clearing the air
Lightweight devices to cool and clean the air breathed by racing drivers
already exist鈥攁nd have done since 1986
(2 June, p 13).
State-of-the-art systems blow ambient air through an 8-centimetre hose into
the lower portion of the driver’s helmet, below the eyes, at 0.4 to 0.7 cubic
metres per minute. The air is first filtered and then cooled.
Low-temperature carbon monoxide (CO) filters that last six hours are
available for under $50. I’m not surprised that neither the Australian
researchers nor the NASCAR drivers they found had been poisoned by CO appear to
be aware of these filtering devices. They are not required by any racing
authority, but NASCAR officials have approved their use and certainly know about
them.
New 杏吧原创 also did not report another obvious way to reduce CO
exposures from racing cars鈥攏amely to fit their exhaust systems with
catalytic converters, as is required of passenger cars.
Freeze on moss
Terence Painter proposes that peat extract and sphagnum moss be used to
preserve fish during transport
(2 June, p 19). Initially, this read as an
interesting scientific discovery, further explaining the ancient practice of
using the peat bog as a fridge鈥攗ntil I read that Painter believes the
technique commercially viable.
His blas茅 attitude towards mass habitat destruction is distinctly
worrying: “There’s a lot of peat here in Norway and very little of it is used.”
Across Britain and Ireland there is very little pristine bog remaining, due to
horticulture, development and electricity production.
We do not really need another reason to loot the countryside. To plunder the
world’s oceans for fish is horrific enough, but the rape of an irreplaceable
terrestrial ecosystem to aid the fishing industry is unforgivable. Let us hope
that the Norwegian government and other fishing nations realise that this is not
a workable option.
Letter
Bandages incorporating sphagnum moss were applied to open wounds in the First
World War by the British Army to prevent bacterial infection.
Perhaps we could reintroduce the moss to help save the hundred or so who die
every week in Britain from hospital-acquired infections?
Spiritual art
I was spellbound by Alan Coukell’s recent report on interpreting the
so-called Bradshaw rock paintings
(19 May, p 34). We were told that Per
Michaelsen and his colleagues had come up with a “new” theory that these figures
may relate to shamanism. What amazed me most was that this is not new at all.
Indeed, the idea that some north Australian rock art might reflect aspects of
shamanism was first explored in print by Kim Sales in 1992 (Archaeology in
Oceania, vol 27, p 22). In terms of the Bradshaw paintings, I published an
extensive piece in Nature Australia (vol 26[3], p 40) in 1998/99, well
before Michaelsen et al’s piece in Mankind Quarterly (2001).
Science v knowledge
Thank you for your excellent articles on complementary and alternative
therapies
(26 May, p 28). Your writers scrupulously avoided repeating the old
“It simply cannot work” rubbish, “it” being anything that is not mainstream
science.
They recognise that some of these issues are not understood by scientists,
and that most users of these therapies are well off, for the obvious reason that
they are expensive. They fail to observe that we are also well and happy.
There has to be something wrong when science in general (from the Latin
“scire”, to know) refuses to know that which is true. It is preposterous, if not
insane, that homeopathy has been shown “not to work”, and that aromatherapy
apparently “does not work”, let alone herbalism, astrology, yoga and so
tediously on. It is evident that too much so-called science is done by
egocentrics, unable to conceive that they may, just possibly, not know all the
answers.
Letter
I was surprised to find that you didn’t mention one of the biggest
differences between CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) and classical
medicine. In the Czech Republic, at least, doctors have nine or more years of
training, while a CAM practitioner can be anyone with a book. Doctors also swear
to do their job to the best of their abilities, using the latest knowledge. They
take personal responsibility for their work.
I am in my fourth year of medical studies and I’ve already seen several
people die because they chose alternative medicine. I’ve also seen a doctor lose
his career for one mistake. I’m not saying CAM can’t work. But the people who
caused those deaths will still get their cash in advance and boast how many
patients they have cured.
Letter
For 24 years I have used homeopathy not only for human ailments but on my
cows, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, goats and sheep. Conditions that have responded
and been successfully cured include meningitis, asthma, mastitis and
rhododendron poisoning.
A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial may be appropriate for a herd of
cows afflicted with mastitis or in a human flu epidemic, but sick humans and
animals usually require an individualised treatment based on an understanding of
the biochemical pathway that has been disturbed. Hypertension may be induced by,
for example, overactive noradrenaline, a reaction to tyramine or misaligned
vertebrae that produce a constriction in a blood vessel, each requiring a
different homeopathic remedy.
Clinical trials cannot predict which future recipients of a conventional drug
will suffer unacceptable side-effects. But when a homeopathic remedy correctly
selected for an individual is successful, its success is usually dismissed as
“anecdotal evidence”.
Evolving cats
Phil Stracchino notes that his cat has opposable digits and is capable of
getting into all sorts of mischief with them
(9 June, p 51). He jokes about her
being the next stage of feline evolution, but maybe he should be more serious
about it. After all, short-legged sheep came about when Massachusetts farmer
Seth Wright noticed he had a mutant in his flock, and bred a line of sheep from
it that couldn’t jump over walls.
Whales in the clear
In response to Fred Pearce’s article
(9 June, p 17), it is not whales but
unselective and unsustainable fishing methods by humans that have exploited fish
stocks. The new Japanese strategy to claim that whales eat more fish than people
eat has only one goal: to resume large-scale commercial whaling.
It is disappointing that New 杏吧原创 is publishing Japanese
whaling propaganda.
Total gridlock
I read the interview with Phil Goodwin about road congestion and traffic
limitation
(9 June, p 41) and I wholeheartedly agree with all he says, but I
feel that he, like governments, has missed the most important points about
ever-escalating traffic. To extend his own analogy, they are trying to dam the
river with a handful of twigs. The underlying reason we have such a problem with
traffic in the developed world is the steady increase of distance between home
and the places we want to spend our time, which has come about for two
reasons:
First, there is a perception that it is more environmentally friendly to
separate commercial areas from residential areas. Thirty years ago most people
could walk to work, now they have to drive. Rural homes have been sold to rich
commuters coming out from the towns, and agricultural workers have to drive from
town to work, instead of stepping out of the door.
Second, we now have far higher expectations for our leisure pursuits. To be
cost-effective, leisure facilities have to be big and located to serve the
largest catchment area, which effectively means every visitor has a long way to
travel.
Before any traffic reduction measure can be expected to work, far more
research is needed into why people travel at all, not why they use a car in
preference to a bus. Technology can solve some of these problems, but it will
take a strong government to implement it.
Keep the Marines out of space
James Oberg’s apparent acceptance that war in space is “a virtual
certainty”鈥攕imply because a US special commission on the military aspects
of space says so鈥攕uggests credulity
(2 June, p 26).
Of course the US could find itself facing a Pearl Harbor in orbit. According
to many Washington insiders, it already faces a variety of electronic
catastrophes if the US military goes on antagonising the rest of the world with
its dreams of space control and dominance in every type of military
operation.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty is now inadequate. A negotiation on the scale of
the 1970s UN Conference on the Law of the Sea is needed to devise a
comprehensive regime that would outlaw national missile defences, laser weapons
and all the other military gizmos US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld dreams
of.
The British government and the European Union are well placed to promote such
a negotiation. Congress, as well as space-using and space-serving industries in
the US, might well support them: who wants Marines crawling over their
satellites?