Bar to progress
Richard Stallman mentions patent EP0394160 issued by the European Patent Office as an example of how a software patent impedes software development (5 February, p 28). The patent covers the display of a “progress bar” that gradually increases in length to show how much of a task has been completed. I agree that granting such patents is undesirable 鈥� and this one should never have been issued anyway.
My colleagues and I regularly attended the United Kingdom Geophysical Assembly (UKGA) held annually at different universities. In 1984 the 8th assembly was held in our physics department in Newcastle. We organised an up-to-the-minute display of the conference programme on TV monitors in the three auditoriums. For each speaker a “progress bar” ran along the bottom of the screen. The bar started off green and its leading edge changed to amber and then to red as the allotted time ran out. The software ran on a BBC computer and was subsequently passed to UKGA organisers at other universities. It was used for many years. There will be hundreds of witnesses to this disclosure of something that we would never in our wildest dreams (or nightmares!) have considered to be patentable.
The idea of a “progress bar” was not novel even then. I remember seeing a “progress column” poster outside a church several decades ago, indicating the state of the roof repair fund.
Going with the wind
Readers might be interested to know that alternative forms of wind propulsion for ships actually have quite a history (26 February, p 44). In Germany before the war, the Flettner Rotor, a vertical rotating cylinder mounted on a “mast” was taken to an advanced state of development. And in the UK, in the 1960s, the Walker Wingsail was successfully demonstrated on a small cargo ship. A company was formed and floated, subscriptions were sought from the public. As I recall, a sudden drop in the price of marine fuel proved to be the project’s undoing. It was later revived for yacht propulsion, now with computer control.
The reasons why these developments failed to mature appear to have been more operational than technological.
warming 鈥� or freezing
The lengthy debate between sceptics and believers on global warming seems to miss the main point. The likelihood of global temperature remaining at its present value is zilch, whatever we do.
Even in the last interglacial (Eemian), temperatures were 1 to 3 degrees warmer than today, and sea-levels 5 to 7 metres higher. During the Earth’s last stable climatic phase, the Eocene, there were no icecaps. Temperatures were about 10 degrees higher than now, forests covered the Antarctic and there were alligators in the Arctic. Even as the slow chill began in the Oligocene and Miocene it was much warmer than our present climate.
Right now we could be (a) still warming up in an interglacial which will be like the Eemian, (b) out of the ice age altogether and moving to stable Eocene-type conditions again or (c) in a rather cool interglacial which will soon chill into another glacial. The only certainty is that our present semi-glacial climate won’t continue indefinitely. The real goal of research should be to find out which of these is the case 鈥� then we can really understand the likely effect of anthropogenic CO2 emission.
RAS syndrome
In response to your running piece about “RAS syndrome” (Feedback, 26 February), I thought I should add my tuppen’orth. In our chemistry test today we were asked a question about “OFC copper”, with an explanation that OFC stood for “oxygen-free copper”. When I pointed out this “oxygen-free copper copper” to my teacher, he suggested that I write to you.
Harrison's bells
As a result of New 杏吧原创 kindly publishing a letter from me on 19 April 1997, John “Longitude” Harrison’s missing 1770s manuscript has emerged from the depths of the US Library of Congress. Although it does not contain the expected diagrams, and I have failed to solve the mysteries of the universe that I sought, I believe that I may have stumbled upon another “lost” Harrison nugget.
Hidden in this 108-page manuscript, between Harrison’s complaints and suggestions about the conduct of his local church services, and restatements of how 蟺聽should be used for musical tuning, Harrison proposes a new (and as far as I can find) novel method for the calculation of proportional dimensions to be used in the construction of church bells 鈥� or, as he puts it: “…the Rules which I discover’d for calculating the proportions for Peals of Bells, i.e. so far as appertains, or may appartain to their diameters at the Skirt, and Thicknesses at the Sound-Bow.”
He calls his concept “radical numbers”, yet having a limited knowledge of the acoustics and metallurgy involved, I have had difficulty in deciphering the details and the significance of his proposals. I have put the complete transcription related to Harrison’s radical numbers theory at: in the hope that someone can untangle this historical mystery, and tell us the meaning and significance of the last written words of the man who won the Longitude Prize.
Gum-free streets
With the mess caused by chewing gum once again hitting the headlines, is it beyond the wit of scientists to make it biodegradable? With an annual clean-up bill of 拢150 million in the UK alone, the inventor would surely make a fortune.
Empty and clean
I am fed up of hearing about MRSA (26 February, p 31). Epidemiology has shown and doctors have known for nearly 100 years that when bed occupancy in hospitals goes over 70 per cent there is a rapid rise in the number of hospital-acquired infections of all types. The reason is simple: you can’t clean a ward or room properly when there are patients in it. Ergo 30 per cent of beds always need to be empty for proper cleansing. So hospital policy is now to get people home as soon as possible.
Make use of methane
Your article suggests that dams for hydroelectric power contribute to the greenhouse effect (26 February, p 8). Surely all the carbon that is released from a dam is derived from the atmosphere anyway. Except for the original pulse of decay, any CO2 released will have been taken quite recently from the atmosphere.
The problem is, of course, the methane. It must be worthwhile considering the possibility of harvesting this more potent greenhouse gas if it is produced in the quantities suggested in the article. Perhaps what is needed is a transfer of technology from the researchers who were the subject of the article “Making the best of garbage gas” (26 February, p 25). Then it would be possible to get two sources of green energy from a given dam 鈥� from hydroelectricity and from a power station fuelled by the methane from the biomass the dam contains.
Harvesting vaccines
Your editorial casts doubt on the safety of using food crops to produce therapeutic proteins to use in developing new biotech drugs for life-threatening diseases (19 February, p 3).
While all new technologies carry some risk, it is important to recognise that with protein-producing plants, safety concerns are significantly reduced because of strict federal and state regulations. All protein-producing plants are grown under permits that take into account the type of plant, the protein, the growing location, and crop handling practices.
Field sites are subject to at least five federal inspections throughout the growing year, and personnel are specially trained in programmes approved by the US department of agriculture. In addition the industry has put in place a very comprehensive stewardship programme that our member companies follow to ensure compliance with these strict federal and state regulations.
The bottom line is that every precaution is being taken with regard to potential risks. With strict government oversight of protein-producing plants, there is no reason why patients should be denied the benefit of new cures that may only be possible through this approach.
Frail Russian woman
I was shocked to read the quote by Anatoly Grigoryev, director of Moscow’s Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (19 February, p 9). If all women in Russia are too fragile and delicate to participate in space exploration, how can they be expected to handle 9 months of pregnancy, especially the labour at the end of it? Maybe in Russia, men do that for the women too?
Bad climate
Kevin Mayfield manages to make two errors in one short letter (5 March, p 32). The second (confusing weather with climate) is commonplace. The first (believing that 30 years ago an ice age was predicted) is less common but just as wrong. See: for a readable explanation or for more detail.
The next pandemic
Margaret Kettlewell is right to ask if there are social, as opposed to medical, ways of slowing the spread of bird flu (26 February, p 30). When there is an outbreak of a highly infectious animal disease, such as foot and mouth, the first thing governments do is halt all movement of the affected species. Are plans in place to close borders, ports and airports in the event of a serious flu outbreak?
Previous flu epidemics took place before the era of mass air travel. If intercontinental flights continue for just a short time after the start of the next epidemic, the virus will be all over the world within a few days. Sealing all national boundaries will probably not stop the epidemic, but it could slow its spread to a level where health authorities might be able to cope.
Stick to science
I read your editorial on divided loyalties with interest (26 February, p 3). My perspective is somewhat different to yours.
杏吧原创s have spent years trying to ensure that they are accepted by society as a whole and, as part of this process, are generally prepared to give opinions on any scientific topic. Rather than letting the science speak for itself, the opinions expressed by the scientists are taken by the onlookers as advocacy of the scientific topic.
As an example, I have an opinion on GM products entering the food chain, but it is just that 鈥� an opinion. I readily admit to not knowing enough about the science to make any serious contribution.
I suspect that scientists are reaping their reward for making science more accessible 鈥� damned if they are too aloof and damned if they are too accessible.
Soccer scare
Finding an excess number of cases of the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among Italian soccer players is very interesting (26 February, p 16). The high relative risk (6.25 calculated from the figures in the article) is certainly statistically significant. But before footballers start to leave the game in droves, perhaps greater emphasis should be given to the absolute risk. Judging from the published data, footballers have an absolute risk of contracting ALS of 1 in 1400, that is to say, the overwhelming majority of footballers will not get the disease, assuming that it is related to their profession.
When reporting the results of epidemiological studies, greater weight seems always to be given to the relative risk, particularly if it is high and likely to cause alarm and despondency. What people who share the same risk factors really need to know is the magnitude of their absolute risk so that they have some indication of how likely it is that they will contract the disease.
From Jill Sverdlove
I wonder if anyone has looked into pesticide use on the football field? Many people I have met who, like me, have multiple chemical sensitivity, became sick after exposure to pesticides, and observe that the nervous system is one of the first to be affected.
Boulder, Colorado, US
Ammar Al-Chalabi of the Institute of Psychiatry in London writes:
鈥� Ingesting pesticides or other chemicals via repeated contact with grass or a ball is plausible. And two studies 鈥� one epidemiological and one case study 鈥� suggested that exposure to herbicides or agricultural chemicals might increase the risk of ALS. The idea that exposure to such chemicals is the reason for the increased risk to footballers reported by Chio therefore requires further research.
No pain, no gain
I happen to think that the laser pulse is an excellent weapon and I hope it comes online sooner than 2007 (5 March, p 8). This will give the military a non-lethal choice in situations where deadly force may now be the only option. If the pulse can be made wide enough, it may be possible to stop an entire riot or violent protest with one burst.
Imagine a company of soldiers in Iraq who are attacked and can immobilise an entire company of the enemy and then just walk up, take their weapons and arrest them. Imagine a hostage situation where a pulse immobilises everyone and nobody has to take a sniper’s bullet to the head.