Letter
James Blish, in his 1958 novel A Clash of Cymbals (published in the US under the title The Triumph of Time), postulated cyclic universes initiated by periodic big bangs, caused by the collision of “parallel” (or orthogonal) universes. The theoretical discussion in the novel presages remarkably accurately the ideas put forward in your article.
When I met Blish in the early seventies, I asked him where he had got the idea of this cataclysmic collision of universes. I think I was hoping to hear that he had special knowledge of up-to-the-minute research that I had not yet encountered. It seems, however, that he was able to tap into ideas from 40 years in the future鈥攁 useful talent for a science-fiction writer to have at his disposal.
Eyes right
In the article on squeezing your eyeballs to improve your vision, the statement “Laser surgery can only correct short-sightedness” is flat-out wrong (23 March, p 24).
This is true. Laser surgery can correct both short-sightedness and far-sightedness. But laser eye surgery cannot correct presbyopia鈥攍ong-sightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye. This commonly happens to people as they get older: they lose the ability to switch their focus from things that are far away to things that are close up, and thus have to wear bifocals. The “smart eye band”, on the other hand, would allow people to do away with bifocals鈥擡d
Yes, Minister
Britons, be thankful that you have such an erudite education minister (16 March, p 58). In stating “At the end of the day, in the morning 鈥�”, Estelle Morris was clearly referring to the astronomical Julian date system. As any astronomer will tell you, Julian days begin at noon.
Correction
in two recent articles on folic acid (23 March, p 11), we stated that the recommended daily intake for women planning a pregnancy is 40 micrograms. In fact it is 400 micrograms. Thanks to reader R. W. Smithells for pointing out this mistake.
And thanks also to James Tickell for pointing out that we jumped several thousand kilometres when writing of “the sound of the quetzal bird as it would have been heard by a Maya in the Peruvian cloud forest” (23 March, p 35). Obviously, this should have been the Mexican cloud forest.
Scotland was first
Mick Hamer’s interesting article on the “genetic revolution” stated that the website that gives access to the 1901 British census hit some trouble when it went online. This site, said the article, was a “first” (16 March, p 32).
But it wasn’t the first to go online and nor was it British鈥攊t was English and Welsh. The Scottish 1881 and 1891 censuses have been available online for some time now and the 1901 census has been available since January. If you have Scottish ancestry there is a mine of information out there.
Out of time
Marcus Chown’s article is absorbing, but is it science? Why must the Universe go through an infinite sequence of big bangs/crunches? I understood that at present we only have evidence for one bang, and there may not be a crunch at all. Why this reckless extrapolation?
In Neil Turok’s own words, the new theory is more “aesthetically pleasing” than the old. It doesn’t explain more observations, but he likes it better. So does Chown. So do I. So what?
I have the same queasy response to the debate over “creation science”. Regardless of the quality of the work done, the driving motivation is not to explain the world as we see it, but to validate (or, for its opponents, to invalidate) an ancient religious text. Scientific method is brutally indifferent to both external dogma and personal feelings. What matters is the data.
Letter
Your article on the cyclic Universe fails to address two very basic questions (16 March, p 26). First, there is no mention of how energy lost from the two-brane spring system is replaced. Each cycle transfers energy into the sheets but if the system is not going to run down then this energy has to be recycled. Perhaps the red-shifted photons within our expanding Universe offer a clue?
A more serious problem is the increase of entropy within the whole system, including the extended space outside the branes. Even in an infinite sheet, which effectively gains mass as the sheet expands, one still has to explain how entropy remains constant on average for a system that is infinite in the time direction.
My feeling is that the extension of physics necessary to get around these problems would have to work outside of time and that this is why it is so difficult to envisage.
The real Anna O
David Cohen recycled the story that Josef Breuer fled Vienna when “Anna O” claimed to be pregnant by him (9 March, p 47). Henri Ellenberger, a historian of psychology, exposed this as a myth 30 years ago.
Ellenberger discovered that the name of the patient was Bertha Pappenheim, and that the story of the termination of her treatment put around by Freud much later is inconsistent with documented facts. Breuer did not flee from his patient, and the hysterical pregnancy story is nothing more than a retrospective “reconstruction” made by Freud.
This imaginative story had a very real purpose鈥攖o demonstrate that Breuer had overlooked the sexual element that Freud insisted must always be present.
Sit well, hear better
I read with interest your article on tinnitus (23 March, p 5). I would like to share a different perspective. I have been living in Taiwan for several years, where socialised medicine exists. For the past two years I have received acupuncture and “to-we-nah”鈥攁 combination of heat/steam, massage and chiropractic techniques鈥攆or treatment of a back injury.
I also had tinnitus. The tinnitus disappeared as my back muscles relaxed and my rolled shoulders and neck straightened. Throughout my treatments I discovered layer upon layer of tight muscles that I was unaware existed.
Many of us walk around with our chests caved in and our necks bent forward. I personally believe from my experiences that a lack of natural alignment reduces both nerve and blood flow and the amount of oxygen in the blood, causing constricted muscles and leading to tinnitus (along with many other conditions).
I would like to see research on tinnitus taken a step further to include changes in the auditory cortex that may result from muscle relaxation and spinal alignment.
Worrying increase in sexual infections
Alison Motluk’s article on sexually transmitted infections fails to address two fundamental facts (9 March, p 12). First, that according to the statistics published by Britain’s Public Health Laboratory Service, diagnoses of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis have all more than doubled since 1995. The burden of most of these diseases falls disproportionately upon young people. STIs, especially if left untreated, can be very serious. They can cause infertility and sometimes lead to death.
Secondly, the incidence of STIs is a predictive indicator for the incidence of HIV. If STIs are on the increase, then the likelihood is that an increase in cases of HIV will follow.
What is clear from the STI figures since the mid-1990s is that increasing numbers of young heterosexuals and homosexual/bisexual men are not practising safer sex. These people would be too young to remember the government’s safer sex campaign in the 1980s. We need to get the message across to young people that there is still no cure for HIV and AIDS.
Our recent report on STIs makes a number of recommendations, including the call for improved sex education in schools, covering the full spectrum of STIs and the need to practise safer sex. High-profile campaigns are needed to highlight sexual health risks and encourage safer behaviour among the general population.
The decline in the incidence of STIs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in response to government publicity about the HIV epidemic, shows that such campaigns can work. However, the doubling of STIs since 1995 illustrates the importance of continually conveying the “safer sex” message to maintain the public’s awareness of STIs.
Creation invasion
It is now becoming apparent that the pupils of Emmanuel College, Gateshead, are being taught biblical “young-Earth creationism”.
The government, and many ordinary British people, seem quite relaxed about this. This country has a long tradition of tolerance of those with odd views. This is seen as endearingly “British”. As a nation, we are proud of our eccentrics. It is ironic that the principal of the college has spoken out against “liberalism”, apparently unaware that this is the very tradition that is working in his favour.
However, in order to make young-Earth creationism seem plausible, it is necessary to block out much scientific knowledge: of biology, geology, astronomy and even nuclear physics (radiometric dating). Creationists seek to achieve this through the use of bogus claims of “scientific evidence” which supposedly either confirms creationism or contradicts evolution.
Should this really be taught to our children? Many dedicated volunteers devote a great deal of time and effort to tracking down and nailing creationist lies, but they have no effective means of communicating this information to the vulnerable young minds within Emmanuel College. Ironically, this is a City Technology College, but this sort of tuition will render its pupils incapable of pursuing many careers in the sciences without extensive “deprogramming”. One pupil has even described evolution as an “atheist lie”.
Creationism is a multimillion-dollar industry in the US, but the First Amendment has thus far thwarted creationist ambitions. British schools have no equivalent protection, and the Americans have taken a great interest in current events. Those now prepared to invest heavily in British education include people who believe that UFOs are magical vehicles in which Satan’s lieutenants (presumably including our own Professor Dawkins) travel to spread “evilutionism”; that the US embassy bombing in Africa was staged by Bill Clinton to divert attention from the Lewinsky affair; that the attacks on the World Trade Center were plotted by the US government to manipulate the stock market (and carried out by atheistic Jews), and that God allowed this to happen to punish Americans for their tolerance of homosexuality and multiculturalism.
There are some very peculiar people out there. With Tony Blair’s blessing, these people will be coming soon to British schools near you. This is “diversity within education”.