Pollen squabbles
Kurt Kleiner’s report on ancient forests misses the point that palynology 鈥� the study of pollen and spores 鈥� is not a precise science (12 March, p 11). Fraser Mitchell’s paper is a case in point. The percentages of tree pollen in dated deposits provide very rough measurements and it is inconceivable that these can reliably demonstrate the precise structure of ancient vegetation; there are far too many variables.
Frans Vera, who in your report says that Mitchell’s observations are inconclusive, has challenged the many wild interpretations of pollen measurements that have been published. So far there has been no quality discussion of the issues. The debate on the structure of the postglacial forests of Europe is vitally important in developing sound nature conservation policies. We need to move forward constructively, rather than bickering in this way.
Internet in the sky
Ensuring that “black box” voice recorders have battery back-ups seems sensible (5 March, p 4). However in an era when the smallest of companies routinely backs up its files to a remote location, storing data at the point of production, never mind 8 kilometres up in the air, seems a little outdated.
At any one time, an aircraft must be in direct line of sight of dozens of others, not to mention satellites and ground stations. It should be technically straightforward to set up an “internet in the sky” to automatically pass flight data to the computers of airline operators, aviation authorities, and so on.
With suitably designed software, it might also allow staff on the ground to identify technical problems at an earlier stage.
Touchy telephones
I very much enjoyed your review of the current developments in tactile communication devices (26 February, p 28). Considering how much of our brains are devoted to touch it’s surprising how long it has taken tactility to enter telecommunications.
When I patented the first system for tactile telephone communications back in 1973 I imagined it would soon become a common experience. Now the added assurance of palpable sensation, often thought of as the best test of “reality”, appears to have found its home generation. And probably the question of what is real will deepen.
Self-igniting ciggies
Your item about self-lighting cigarettes stirred memories buried in a haze of ancient smoke (19 March, p 25). The Israelis may be about to patent the idea, but the British beat them to it 鈥� by about 40 years.
Self-igniting ciggies were sold, albeit briefly, in tobacconists’ shops in the UK in the 1960s, along with a host of other unusual smokers’ requisites, including double-length cigarettes (sold singly) and packets of five Woodbines, for days when the pocket money was running low.
I can no longer recall the brand name, but I clearly remember them having a red band around the tip, which would splutter into life when rubbed against the striker on the side of the pack. They weren’t around very long, they didn’t always work, and serious smokers claimed the sulphur taint sucked through the cigarette on lighting spoilt the flavour of the tobacco, though this was of such poor quality that others argued its flavour was actually improved.
For the record
鈥� In our feature about organic transistors (19 March, p 38) our wording incorrectly implied that Bertram Batlogg had recently moved from Bell Labs to the Technical University of Zurich. He actually moved in 2000. We should also emphasise that he and all other co-authors of Hendrik Sch枚n’s work were cleared of any scientific misconduct.
Teenage bullies
The researchers into bullying at the University of Minnesota asked schoolchildren to say how aggressive their classmates were and also which members of the opposite sex they would ask to a party. They concluded that “boys have high status with their male peers if they are bullies, and girls like them”. They may have asked the right questions but drawn the wrong conclusion (5 March, p 49). As the father of a pre-teenage girl I think I can offer an insight into the reason why people might ask bullies to parties. Quite simply because if you don’t, they will make sure nobody else comes. If you ask the bully you have a good chance there will be other, more attractive people there too. If you don’t you may be on your own.
From Claire Wilkinson (14)
The reason the blue “Beat Bullying” wristbands sold out so fast was that they are very fashionable. Everyone in my form wants one, but I don’t think many of them mind what issue they are for. They buy the cancer ones as well. My friend has about five of them.
By the way, I sort of object to the cover of this issue. I do not have an “alien” mind.
Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK
From Richard Wilson
So Steven Leigh thinks teenagers evolved in response to the need to walk long distances, does he (5 March, p 38)? This will not convince any parent who has ever tried to get their teenager to come out for a nice Sunday stroll. My theory is that teenagers only came into being after the invention of the bed, when young humans were presented with somewhere they could spend the whole day. This makes it a very recent development. I will revise my opinion if evidence is found of text messaging ability in Homo erectus.
Belper, Derbyshire, UK
Climate feedbacks
Neil Fisher (5 March, p 32) suggests that most of the global warming projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are flawed because, he thinks, there must be negative feedbacks which will counter global warming (5 March, p 32). He believes that, without such negative feedbacks, the climate would not have been stable over thousands of years.
Climate history, unfortunately, gives us many examples of abrupt and catastrophic climate change. Some 13,000 years ago, global temperatures first dropped and, many centuries later, rose by well over 3 掳C. In both cases the temperature change occurred within less than 50 years. Buried mangrove forests have been found under the Great Barrier Reef which suggest a 3-metre rise in sea levels in less than 30 years, following the end of the last ice age, at least in that region.
Longer ago, massive and abrupt global warming saw a rise of 8 掳C in sea-surface temperatures during the early Eocene. The greatest extinction of all times, at the end of the Permian, coincided with a sudden massive rise in greenhouse gases.
The climate experienced since the last ice age has indeed been stable, but then greenhouse-gas levels, and probably the amount of radiation received by the Earth, have been fairly stable until recently. If we look further back, we find a climate that is quite stable within small parameters and prone to abrupt and catastrophic changes when pushed too far. Climate history gives the strongest warning that we must not push the system too far 鈥� and that we must keep greenhouse-gas levels under control.
Progress bar patents
Contrary to Alan Stephenson’s assertion (19 March, p 29) Richard Stallman did not give an example of how a so-called “software patent” impedes development (5 February, p 28). Stallman made that claim, but gave no example of any development that has actually been impeded. He also omitted to point out that, as can readily be established by reference to the European Patent Office website, EP0394160 lapsed in the UK in early 2004, in France in 2002 and in Spain in 1999. The detailed technical information it contains is now freely available for software developers to use, accomplishing the fundamental purpose of the patent system.
In contrast, Alan Stephenson doesn’t tell us how the 1984 “progress bar” display was implemented, or where a copy of the program can be inspected to find out. It isn’t clear from his description that the 1984 system had all the features required by the main claims of EP0394160, so his assertion that it should never have been granted isn’t established. A church poster “progress column” doesn’t possess all those features: it wouldn’t infringe EP0394160 -if that were still in force 鈥� but equally it doesn’t invalidate it.
From James Fenton
In the 1960s our then car, an Austin Maxi I think it was, had a progress bar as a speedometer. This would have been “hardware”, but surely the concept was “software”?
Inverness, UK
Unfathomable thinking
In Paul Davies’s article on the emergence of life, the positions of the reductionists 鈥� who claim life can be predicted from the laws of atomic physics 鈥� and of those who support “strong emergence” 鈥� who believe additional laws emerge at various levels of complexity 鈥� were I thought very well described, and I do not know which is right, maybe neither (5 March, p 34). However, the rest of the piece struck me as extremely woolly thinking.
To give just one example, the availability of a computer to do the 100-amino-acids divining is an engineering problem, not a physics or fundamental reality problem. The revelation at the end of the article, that a quantum computer with 400 particles could have calculated the qualities of the 100-amino-acid molecule, made that clear. Why make the assumption that the nature of the universe is a function of the current state of the computer industry on Earth?
By the way, I really liked the fish sculpture graphics.
Wind-powered boats
Referring to the matter of wind power for ships, I tried this out in a 29-foot (9 metre) yacht some years ago. It was clear to me that the major advantage would be that the line of traction could be made to pass much closer to the line of resistance through the keel. In principle therefore much larger traction forces could be applied than was possible with a conventional sail. There were other advantages already aired, that the wind speed is higher at higher altitude and that its direction could also be different to that at the surface.
The kite I used was a small one in aerofoil section, controlled by two lines. The great difficulty was to get the kite launched, and when it dropped into the water the drag was naturally enormous. The solution seemed to me that the kite should be attached to a helium-filled balloon or balloons, which would prevent it from dropping into the sea. A two-control-line kite also has the problem that when going directly downwind the kite is almost overhead, when the horizontal pull becomes small. A four-control-line kite would get round this, but would of course require more control. I am sure however with a bit of development along these lines it would be possible to make small craft skim over the surface at considerable speed.
How the rich rule
It is very interesting that the wealth of the majority of people fits a curve that describes the energies of atoms in a gas (12 March, p 6), but there is no mystery here. The underlying reason for this skew was explained in 1879 by the economist Henry George, who showed it was caused by the conditions of land tenure.
One way to understand what is happening is to imagine three people playing a game of Monopoly. When all the properties have been bought, a fourth player joins the game. He will inevitably be subject to unfair terms as, wherever he lands on the board, he has to pay rent to one of the other players.
This is an accurate model of a key aspect of real economies. Those who do not own land have no option but to work for wages, which will be driven down to a minimum level by competition for work. Landowners need do nothing but collect the rent for allowing labour access to land.
The question in real economies is how the rules could be changed to enable newcomers to join the game once it is under way and all the sites are taken. George proposed that the rental value of land should be collected and used to replace existing taxes. In this way, the game can go on for ever, giving equal opportunities to newcomers and succeeding generations.
From Jim Penman
Arguing that some sort of natural law promotes inequality in a market economy is not only wrong but dangerous. For 200 years the growth of the market economy accompanied a dramatic closing of the gap between rich and poor. Only recently has the gap started to widen, and this has more to do with government policy than market forces. We have impossibly complex tax codes that allow the wealthy to pay far less than their share, and Byzantine legal systems that put justice out of reach for those who can’t afford the best lawyers. We have social security systems that lock the unemployed into degrading poverty and, in Australia at least, a family law system that robs ordinary people for the benefit of wealthy lawyers.
Treating inequality as some sort of physical law justifies it and stops people looking for solutions. It is the result of people knowing a great deal about statistics but nothing of history.
Montrose, Victoria, Australia
From Paul Schleifer
It has long been recognised that there is one law for the rich and another for the rest of us. If we all competed fairly in the market economy, we might all follow a Pareto distribution of wealth which, while far from equal, would at least be meritocratic. The problem is that political power follows wealth, so the rich can influence legislation in their favour. This allows the super-wealthy to benefit disproportionately from economic growth.
Addressing wealth inequality by attempting to tax the super-wealthy is unlikely to succeed. The only approach that will work is to limit their influence. The challenge is to be nice about it.
London, UK
From David Charlton
While this article raises interesting analogues in the physical world to explain the distribution of income, it does not, as headlined, have much to do with the distribution of wealth. Income 鈥� earnings received per unit time 鈥� does not completely represent wealth, defined as net economic value of assets owned at any point in time.
Corning, New York, US
From Stephan Bren
A model that likens economic interactions to atomic collisions in a gas is justified with the statement “the analogy also holds because money is like energy, in that it has to be conserved”.
Victor Yakovenko needs to extend the bounds of his model to encompass wealth generated from, among other things, natural resources and the intellectual domain. The amount of steel available today, for example, is vastly greater than it was just 100 years ago. This increases the amount of money in the economy. Simple observation shows that real wealth has been increasing 鈥� more individuals own or have access to transportation, housing, medical care, disposable income, and so on, than at any previous time.
Elkridge, Maryland, US
Smokers' clean air
You draw attention to the need for better ventilation on passenger planes during outbreaks of diseases such as SARS (19 March, p 15). When smoking was permitted on aircraft, cabin air was circulated and replaced to a far greater extent than at present. Banning smoking on aircraft in effect greatly reduced the air quality, as airlines took advantage of every cost-cutting measure available in order to bring us the low cost of air travel we have today.
A few more pounds on an air ticket is a very small price to pay when compared with the potential impact of human-transmissible SARS travelling around the world in less than 24 hours.
Dirty hydros
Philip Fearnside believes emissions from reservoirs should be included in calculations of a country’s carbon budget. But the claim that hydropower projects are net producers of greenhouse gases is not correct (26 February, p 8). Carbon released from reservoirs is part of the “contemporary” carbon cycle, as it was recently drawn from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. In principle it is no different to the release of carbon dioxide by humans when we oxidise our food to produce energy.
Increases in the contemporary carbon cycle are important but short-lived. They should not divert attention from the main problem, which is the addition of fossil carbon to the atmosphere.
Philip Fearnside writes:
鈥� While CO2 that has been derived from photosynthesis in the reservoir 鈥� by plankton, for example 鈥� is indeed part of the “contemporary carbon cycle”, these releases are not counted in my analysis.
What do count as net contributions to global warming are two other sources. One is carbon released from the above-water decay of trees left standing in reservoirs when they are initially flooded. These trees are not replaced by new ones when they die. The other source is methane released from the water, mainly at the turbines and spillways. The continual conversion of CO2 from the atmosphere into methane, which occurs through anaerobic decay of submerged vegetation, represents a boost to global warming that is not part of the contemporary carbon cycle. See for detailed calculations.
Sense and homeopathy
I think the mention of homeopathy in your article about things that don’t make sense (19 March, p 30) is incomplete without some mention the BBC TV Horizon programme on this topic, the transcript of which is at
The Belfast results you report were tested with a double blind procedure and came out null as expected.
鈥� A number of readers have pointed out that the results of the Horizon programme, first broadcast in the UK in 2002, debunk the Belfast homeopathy results. Immediately after the broadcast some critics insisted the study was too small to give a definite answer either way: even Madeleine Ennis said the Horizon experiment was incapable of allowing any kind of definitive conclusion (New 杏吧原创, 7 December 2002, p 10).
But there were also counter-claims. The experimenters behind the Horizon programme stick by their results, and Ennis’s protocols certainly have their critics (, vol 6, p 68).
On the other hand, in 2003 Swiss chemist Louis Rey published a peer-reviewed paper claiming that, even though they should be identical, the structure of hydrogen bonds in pure water is very different from that in homeopathic dilutions of salt solutions (). As yet, we simply don’t have the final answer.
Sense and cold fusion
I found David Nagel’s statement comparing our understanding of cold fusion to that of superconductivity before it was explained by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer to be misleading (19 March, p 30).
Prior to their theory the phenomenon of superconductivity was an experimentally proven result that could be reproduced in many different materials. The main problem that cold fusion research suffers from is the non-reproducibility of expected observables.
The general opinion of the US Department of Energy review was that the evidence presented was inconclusive in establishing an experimental basis for cold fusion. It was proposed that well-designed, peer-reviewed experiments should be considered for funding, but there was no recommendation for a federally funded cold fusion programme. This is hardly the ringing endorsement that “bulletproof” experimental results would receive.
We'll meet again
The scenario you describe in the experiments on altruism, that individuals have frequent “one-shot” interactions with strangers, who they never interact with again, is very unlike the real world (12 March, p 33). The fact that you have met someone once means that you have something in common, and thus may meet them again.
In particular the possibility of indirect yet significant, encounters is much stronger for a species with language and a verbal culture. Animals can only deal with a slight when they meet the offender in person, and likewise can only warn their pack in the same way. With a spoken language and tribal memory, a slight can be shared with the whole tribe and carried down the years.
Major themes of folklore include the kind deed unexpectedly rewarded, evil acts eventually punished, and long-nurtured vengeance finally achieved.