For the record
鈥� In our feature on space elevators (2 September, p 36), we assumed that Nicola Pugno was female. He isn’t. Sorry, Nicola.
Shingle street burnings
Back when I was about 11 years old the father of a friend of mine told me this story. He had been assigned reserved occupation 鈥� that is, an occupation from which a person will not be taken for military service 鈥� because he could drive equipment and was working a tractor with a land army unit somewhere near a coast. He had been requested by an army officer to bring his tractor down to the beach. When he got there, he found the beach covered with burned bodies in uniforms bearing German insignias. The army required him to use his tractor to drag the bodies into piles. There was a Caterpillar tractor nearby, but no one there knew how to drive it, so this man offered to drive it for them. The army asked him to dig out a large trench in the beach and push in the bodies to a mass grave, which he did. He said he estimated there were between 700 and 1000 bodies. He heard later that other locals had also been called upon to bury more bodies at other beach sites.
He didn’t tell me, and I didn’t think to ask him, where this had occurred. He said that after doing this, the army had required him to sign an Official Secrets document and told him that he could never speak of it or else he could be charged. He told me this in the late 1950s. He believed, and rumour among the locals said, that the air force had poured gasoline on the sea and set light to it with napalm in order to stop a German invasion. He could not get an official explanation out of the army officers on the beach there to confirm or deny this rumour, but rank and file soldiers there believed this to be the case.
When I told my grandmother about his story, she said that she had also heard that rumour, but didn’t know if it was true. However, if he was an eye witness to the bodies maybe it was true. He had no reason to tell me this story except in recounting his experience of the war and his time in the reserved occupation.
Exploding Pluto
I am writing to you as a concerned uncle. My 5-year-old nephew recently started school and was told that Pluto was no longer a planet. He is a very sensitive young boy (always getting upset about violence and destruction) and he came home from school upset because he thought that Pluto had blown up.
I tried my best to console him, finally doing so by telling him that we would fight to get Pluto back. Here is our simple letter and our plea to you, dear scientists: please give us our planet back! Pluto, we will miss you.
Golem's revenge
You suggest that the most significant thing about the golem of legend is that he is a big lummox (2 September, p 46). But the major theme of the legend is hubris 鈥� humanity going where it should not.
And it is important that in the best-known version, the Golem of Prague, the monster was conceived as a defensive weapon but caused mayhem. Though golems are, generally, held to be incapable of harming their creators directly, in many stories they are smart enough to work out that they can seek revenge by harming others.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a golem story, and her monster in its despair kills Elizabeth, the beloved of the doctor who created him. It should be forbidden to practise science or technology before deep contemplation of Shelley’s book.
Yours sins nearly
Your story on “eggcorns” was fascinating, but covered only part of the territory (26 August, p 52). Modern writers have often coined new versions of words to great satiric or ironic effect 鈥� such as John Irving’s sinister under toad (undertow) in The World According to Garp, or the many examples in D. B. C. Pierre’s 2003 Booker prizewinner, Vernon God Little, where, for example, the adolescent hero yearns to overturn the near-universal misreading of his actions, or “change the paradigm”, which he thinks is spelled “power dime” 鈥� an ironic comment on the primacy of money in this writer’s dystopic vision of the US.
No doubt your readers will now be sending in their own examples, and this could be a regular feature in New 杏吧原创 鈥� in which case you could then look forward to the ultimate accolade, having the idea pinched by a broadsheet Sunday newspaper.
From Ken Pease
Eggcorns are characterised as linguistic errors whereby people connect what they have heard with what they know, as when Alzheimer’s disease is rendered old-timer’s disease. These should be distinguished from the deliberate use of misnomers to point up links or balder truths. In our family acupuncture becomes actualpuncture, while environmental worthiness leads to the purchase of organist’s milk and the Toyota Pious.
Stockport, Merseyside, UK
Cash-strapped maths
Your editorial mentions that a global effort is under way to digitise the past mathematical literature, but adds that the project is “bogged down by petty disputes over formatting” (26 August, p 3). This is certainly not the case.
The International Mathematical Union has led an effort to digitise the paper archives and has coordinated standards for such projects. It has suggested ways to incorporate links to this past literature into the current reviewing services, created a registry for such projects () and promoted a vision for a World Digital Mathematics Library (). We estimate that nearly 20 per cent of the past literature is already online.
The impediments to completing this enterprise have nothing to do with formats, but are rather more mundane. Research agencies are unwilling to invest money in routine work such as digitisation, even when it clearly benefits research. Further, the vast majority of this literature is owned by those who originally published it, and they see an opportunity to sell it again in digital form. The second point (the copyright problem) is an obstacle that will vex digitisation projects of the future as well as the present unless we find a solution now.
Legalise it
Your editorial discusses the problems associated with illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine (2 September, p 3). The obvious solution is to legalise them. This immediately eliminates the criminal problem and its attendant huge costs: no more efforts abroad to squash growers and combat suppliers, no more efforts at home to arrest suppliers and users, and greatly reduced prison requirements.
Establishing a free-market cost for each drug at the level of alcohol and cigarettes, with similar taxes, should essentially remove the necessity for users to commit robberies to support their habit. The taxes can then go to school-age and adult programmes to prevent usage and treat users who want to quit.
Advertisement of drugs or any other means of enticement must be prohibited. Drugs would be available only over the counter at pharmacies, with information and appropriate health warnings, and any other means of sale would continue to be prohibited. Purity could be regulated, and a minimum age requirement would be necessary.
From Gregory Sams
In your editorial and article on the effects of illegal drugs on crime and conservation, the focus is almost entirely upon cocaine and crack. As your editorial points out, the war on drugs has had little effect upon the growth of “street drug” usage, particularly that of cocaine derivatives and the easily home-made methamphetamine.
On the other hand, the war on drugs has successfully had a major impact upon the consumption of other drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms, MDMA (ecstasy) and LSD. Many American graduates of the 1960s found it necessary to retire to their garage or bathroom lest their children see them indulging in “dangerous” marijuana and report them to the authorities. In the UK, hysteria over ecstasy use following the death of teenager Leah Betts drove many youngsters towards cocaine, which they falsely perceived to be a safer alternative. As the inquest determined, Betts did not die from the pill she took, but from drinking 7 litres of water in 90 minutes. LSD, the defining drug of the 1960s, is now relatively rare to youth culture, and the partial revival of magic mushrooms in the UK was dampened by the recent illegalisation of them in fresh form. In the UK today, alcohol use amongst the youth is surging as clubs take a hard line with those selling ecstasy, which reduces the user’s desire to drink alcohol. Cocaine users, on the other hand, drink more.
The annual deaths from cannabis, magic mushrooms, MDMA and LSD combined are less than that arising in one week from cocaine or one day from alcohol. Neither do those manufacturing and trading in these less damaging alternatives to cocaine have a reputation for the ruthless disregard of human life and the environment that is sadly characteristic of the cocaine trade.
From time immemorial human beings have sought substance-induced means to get “out of their heads”. It would seem that the long-term effect of the war on drugs has primarily been to reduce the available menu of substances available, channelling users towards the most destructive drugs on offer. Perhaps, along with providing more treatment for the casualties of cocaine, amphetamine and heroin addiction, society would be served by reducing the restrictions upon usage of safer and less socially damaging alternatives.
London, UK
Near-death evidence?
I would like to comment on Eric Kvaalen’s letter, in which he cites an article from The Lancet (2 September, p 18). He implies the article validated a near-death experience (NDE) in which a patient claimed that, while flatlining on an EEG, she was aware of her surroundings. He says: “This included an out-of-body experience, during which she observed things that happened during the period of the flat EEG and that were subsequently verified.” Perhaps Kvaalen could supply details of this verification. It does not appear to come from the article in The Lancet but from a book called Light and Death: One doctor’s fascinating account of near-death experiences by M. B. Sabom, specifically chapter 3, “Death: the final frontier” featuring “The case of Pam Reynolds”.
The Reynolds case has received very thorough scrutiny in the British magazine The Skeptic (vol 18, nos 1 and 2). The two-part in-depth article, called “An anaesthesiologist examines the Pam Reynolds story”, by Gerry Woerlee, finds no convincing evidence for an NDE, let alone verification of Reynolds’s observations whilst “dead”. Woerlee tells us “…it was an experience whose roots lay in the functioning of her body, complemented by imagery nestling in the deepest reaches of her psyche, as well as the fact that she was awake for several periods of time during her operation.”
Extraordinary claims such as NDE and out-of-body experiences need to be supported by evidence. So far this is lacking. While some may consider the notion of personal survival after death comforting, it has yet to be substantiated.
Smashing idea
The opening words, “forget those messy atom smashers”, put an unfortunate tarnish on Stephen Battersby’s otherwise interesting report on the state of the art in particle physics (26 August, p 36).
Particle physics research passes through cycles of discovery and understanding. Experience has taught us that proton colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), are best suited for discovery, while electron machines such as the International Linear Collider (ILC) are the machines of choice for homing in on new discoveries. At CERN 鈥� the European laboratory for particle physics 鈥� the Nobel prize-winning discovery of W and Z particles was made with the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) proton-antiproton collider, while the in-depth analysis of those particles was done with Large Electron Positron collider (LEP).
With the LHC, we are poised to embark on a new era of discovery, examining the origins of mass, dissecting dark matter, revealing secret symmetries of the universe, and perhaps even discovering extra dimensions of space, to use Battersby’s words. These are capabilities attributed by Battersby to the ILC, but they are in fact true of the LHC.
There is unanimity among particle physicists worldwide, formalised in publications of the CERN Council and the US National Academies, for example, that the LHC is the top priority for research and discovery in particle physics, with a linear collider the next logical step. Precisely what form that collider might take will not be known before we have the first results from the LHC. Whatever it is, particle physicists would be foolish to forget the messy atom smashers. They are an essential part of the discovery process, as the LHC is set to prove when it switches on next year.
Body clock control
Gaia Vince’s article on altered body clocks reminds me of the difficulties faced by many psychiatry in-patients in regulating their body clocks (2 September, p 50). Sleep disturbance is a feature of a variety of psychiatric illnesses, and it often takes longer to resolve than other symptoms of psychotic or depressive illnesses.
A reversed sleep-wake cycle can delay a patient’s discharge date because of concerns about their ability to engage in community treatment and carry out daily living activities, and many patients still have very disrupted body clocks when they leave.
Wards often have poor access to natural light as windows are restricted for safety reasons, and patients who are detained under the Mental Health Act may be unable to go outside whilst they are unwell. Fortunately, some hospitals have secure gardens, although staffing levels often limit the time patients may spend there.
Perhaps increased exposure to natural daylight at an early stage could be used to regulate patients’ body clocks and ease the return to normal daily activities.
From Robert Jasper
There have been recent moves in the UK parliament to continue British summer time, or daylight saving time, through winter, with claims that lives will be saved on the roads with the lighter evenings. However, your article implies that doubt must be cast over such claims. Surely there is a possibility that drivers and pedestrians will not be at their most alert in the dark hours of the morning; their circadian clocks have not been primed by daylight, making them groggy, with slower reactions and poor observation. We need better statistics about early morning accidents and their causes before we commit ourselves to this change.
It also seems possible, given the evidence of your article, that extending summer time may well be detrimental to the education of our youth.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, UK
From Ian Flitcroft
Spare a thought for the Chinese. The whole country is forced to live and work in a single time zone 60 degrees wide spanning 4 hours of biological time. So teenagers in the eastern provinces of China can get up 4 “biological” hours later than the poor unfortunates in western provinces. Could this explain the exuberant growth and success of Shanghai?
Dublin, Ireland
From Benjamin Twist
You mention the use of melatonin to help regulate sleep patterns. I am a theatre director. Some years ago I was directing a production of a Shakespeare play and my leading actor was sleeping badly during rehearsals. After a triumphant first night he took melatonin to aid his sleep. The next evening, in full flow and full view, he lost his place in the play so completely that he clearly didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. I had to announce to the full house that he was ill and cancel the show.
He was distraught, fearing he had lost the main tool of his trade, his memory. I, too, was distressed to see a fine actor so reduced. I took him to the doctor the next day, who told us that melatonin is known to have psychiatric side effects, the results of which we had witnessed, and which is why it is not easily available in the UK. I am always puzzled when I hear of its regular use by airline crew and others working in dangerous or responsible situations.
My actor recovered completely that afternoon and the rest of the run was a great success.
Edinburgh, UK