For the record
鈥� A production error in “Who’s reading what” (21 May, p 59) confused Patricia Murray’s surname with that of her fellowship 鈥� she is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow researching developmental biology at the University of Liverpool 鈥� and compounded the error by calling her Ivy.
鈥� In our story “Black or white, the reaction is the same” (14 May, p 9), we should have quoted the DOI reference as 10.1038/nn1465. The full reference is Nature Neuroscience, vol 8, p 720.
鈥� The time travellers’ convention mentioned by Feedback (14 May) was organised by MIT student Amal Dorai, not, as implied, science writer Emily Singer.
Canadian dinos
Has New 杏吧原创 no idea about the dinosaur discoveries in Canada 鈥� the world’s second biggest country after Russia?
The work of palaeontologists at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, is recognised worldwide, and the Alberta Badlands are an amazing repository of dinosaur remains. Yet the map of old and new dinosaur territories shows Canada as totally devoid of dinosaur traces (21 May, p 38). We’ve been blanked out.
Beyond belief
Feedback reports that Niels Bohr stated that a lucky horseshoe would work even if you didn’t believe in it (21 May). I’m with Bohr on this one: I don’t believe in tosh. But then, we Virgoans don’t, do we?
Wait for the evidence
Satellite measurements have so far failed to deliver the results that advocates of global warming would like. Presumably there is something wrong with the data. So it was good to read the article by Duncan Graham-Rowe about a proposed method for increasing the accuracy of the instruments (4 June, p 14). But before giving the article the title “Silencing the climate sceptics” shouldn’t he have waited for the new and improved data to come in?
Fair play on carbon
We are not, as your article implies, limited to an “either/or” choice between per-capita emissions and per-unit-of-GDP emissions of carbon (25 May, p 12). A blended system could start with levels similar to current emissions and move towards a per-capita system. That prevents abrupt changes in existing high-emissions economies, but forces the overall system to move towards a fair long-term per-capita limit.
Since a pure per-capita limit could encourage population growth in countries with low per-capita emissions (the larger population would allow those countries more emissions rights, which they could sell), the population component of the limit would be based on population as of a certain date (which must be in the past, not the future).
The sum of all nations’ emissions would be based on a total global cap that would never be expanded, regardless of population growth or GDP growth.
Seeing red
I noticed that all of the sports mentioned in the article ascribing performance-enhancing properties to wearing red are ones that are officiated (21 May, p 16). Isn’t it possible that the winners’ advantage is due to subconscious favouritism on the part of referees and judges?
Drug testing on animals
Gary Francione’s article about the relationship between human beings and animals contains the comment that “there is considerable evidence that reliance on animal models in experiments or drug testing may even be counterproductive” (4 June, p 51).
I do not believe there is “considerable evidence” of this. It is true that using animal models in research has limits, and it is also true that testing new drugs on animals does not completely guarantee their safety. After all, despite extensive human clinical trials on new drugs they sometimes have to be withdrawn because of unexpected deleterious side effects.
The use of animals is just one part of research and testing, but it is still an important part. As was stated in the conclusion of the recent authoritative report by a UK House of Lords Select Committee on animals in scientific procedures (2002), “There is at present a continued need for animal experiments both in applied research and in research aimed purely at extending knowledge,” and, “Toxicological testing in animals is at present essential for medical practice and the protection of consumers and the environment, as it often provides information that is not currently available from any other source.” If satisfactory non-animal methods are eventually developed that may not be the case, but nothing seems likely to change for the foreseeable future.
Wooden aircraft
Your article on composite materials for aeroplanes made me wonder, do any of the current generation of aeronautical engineers have access to information from the de Havilland archives regarding laminate wooden aircraft construction (28 May, p 21)?
It is interesting to note that this extremely tough and lightweight method of creating complex monocoque structures can survive considerable stresses, but it was also common for such airframes to suffer catastrophic failure without any indication of a problem, when an all-metal aircraft might show telltale signs of fatigue.
I wonder if such information would not be useful in calculating the onset of failure in composite materials.
Bird-flu vaccine
The most recent of your valuable, consciousness raising articles on bird flu notes the concern that the Tamiflu drug may or may not be effective and that it will take many months to produce a viral vaccine (4 June, p 10).
However, we do still have options. One is DNA vaccines. They were discovered in the early 1990s but were a disappointment then. Now a company has had a successful phase 1 trial with a DNA flu vaccine and our lab has shown that it should be possible to produce kilograms of vaccine in existing facilities in weeks rather than months.
If early pandemic fatalities were at 0.2 per cent of the global population, a tenth of the 1918 level, one might not wish to risk a new type of vaccine. If they showed signs of remaining at 20 per cent (1.2 billion deaths) or even dropped to the 1918 level (120 million deaths) it would seem sensible to let people choose whether on not to take a risk on a new vaccine.
Contra-sex pill
The article about the possible long-term effects of the contraceptive pill on women’s libido struck a chord with me (28 May, p 17). I didn’t take it for very long as its effect on my libido was such that contraception seemed a little irrelevant!
When, many years later, I had my sex hormone levels measured, my testosterone level was very low. I was assured by a consultant gynaecologist that this was extremely unlikely to be related to my lack of sexual desire. Indeed, he said, they saw so many women with testosterone levels well below the “normal” range that they were thinking about redefining the normal limits.
No alternative to tax
Your correspondents on 4 June (p 28) are all probably right: the need to cut greenhouse emissions is so grave that nuclear power may well have a role to play; certainly micro-hydro will; and “strong and determined government action” will be required to get a wide range of energy-saving and renewables measures widely adopted.
What neither they nor you in your editorial of 14 May (p 3) mention is the simplest, most effective means to these ends: carbon taxes. High taxes on CO2 emissions, rising steeply, will give all energy producers and users a powerful incentive to use and improve the whole range of relevant technologies. Carbon trading is a poor substitute, ethically and practically: your right to heat up the planet in future is based bizarrely on how much you are doing to heat it up now; and it doesn’t give clear incentives based on predictable prices. But, if governments are brave enough to impose these taxes, and so raise market prices for electricity, they get a compromise option on nuclear power: work out fair charges to impose for radioactive waste disposal and insurance against accident and attack, and then leave the decision to the private sector. The price mechanism is a wonderful thing.
No need to steal doctors
You quote The Lancet as saying: “To poach and rely on highly skilled foreign workers from poor countries in the public sector is akin to the crime of theft” (4 June, p 11). In countries such as the Philippines families have to fund the education of medical workers 鈥� the state does not pay for training. The UK has no right to stop them offering their services around the world. After all, British nurses and doctors with state-paid training are free to go to the US and do so in large numbers.
However, many potential medical staff in poor countries never get near a hospital because their families cannot afford to put them through medical school. One win-win way forward is for rich countries to tap the vast pool of intelligent well-educated youngsters in these developing countries by creating and financing medical education and training facilities there. Much cheaper and no strain on these countries.
Playing with smallpox
The plan to start research on smallpox again and to generate genetically modified viruses containing various bits of its DNA is total madness (28 May, p 6). The history of virology is littered with laboratory escapes, and although GM smallpoxes will probably be as easy to eradicate as the original viruses, the other GM viruses, containing smaller bits of smallpox, may not be.
All the proposed experiments would be better done using other, safer poxviruses. No virulence tests can be done with smallpox, and what is the point of smallpox-specific antivirals (even if they are found) when antivirals that target the whole family of poxviruses might have a greater range of uses.
The imprimatur for this dangerous project is provided by the World Health Organization’s Variola Virus Committee. One can only assume that someone thought that smallpox was more likely than other viruses to register with our world leaders and paymasters, with their penchant for fear and terror. Perhaps the WHO Variola Virus Committee should adopt the motto: “Well, it seemed a good idea at the time”.