Rocky ground
The article on the arrest and detention of meteorite hunters Michael Farmer and Robert Ward reads more like an adventure story than an account of how scientists would collect samples in foreign fields (2 July, p 28).
They did not seem to have engaged in partnership with academic or government authorities in Oman. There, as in many countries, the export of such materials is forbidden without agreement. Breaking this rule can sometimes lead to unpleasant situations.
The normal procedure before collecting rocky or biological material would be to establish cooperation with scientists. Prior to going into the field, this should be formalised through a memorandum of understanding or of agreement. Finally, export permits would need to be secured from the authorities.
It is sad that Farmer and Ward suffered hardship, terror even, in an Omani prison. However, it should be noted that Omanis are known as good hosts to invited 鈥� and even unexpected 鈥� guests.
Mechanical cheat
Jim Giles and Zena Iovino described abuses of outsourcing website Mechanical Turk by those offering online jobs (9 July, p 20). Abuse frequently occurs in the opposite direction too.
Researchers paying turkers to fill in multiple choice questionnaires find that a large proportion try to bend the rules. In order to maximise income, they answer as quickly as possible by clicking the most convenient button. In order to exclude these responses from their data, researchers have to use a variety of devices, such as planting questions with obvious answers then ignoring responses from anyone who gets these wrong.
Researchers not taking such precautions will find that referees reject their results.
This race is run
In talking of the post-shuttle era (9 July, p 3), one would have to question the point of crewed low-Earth orbit missions 鈥� low-Earth orbit being up to 2000 kilometres from the Earth’s surface, and including the International Space Station. This is probably what the US administration has figured out. Other than an extremely useful laboratory, functions such as communication, spying and possible missile systems can all be run without the need for humans in orbit, which is risky and costly.
Developing nations will see crewed missions as a game of the big players, in the same way as they view nuclear technology, and will always want a seat at the table. A few short and rather fruitless visits to the moon proved only that space travel is exceptionally difficult.
The space race? It ain’t over, but it probably should be.
Questioning g
In your “Instant Expert” on intelligence (2 July), I was surprised at the uncritical acceptance of g, the general factor of intelligence. Author Stephen Jay Gould has dismissed it as an artefact of the mathematical method used to calculate it.
Readers who want a more sceptical view should read Gould’s 1981 book The Mismeasurement of Man. In it, he highlights the misuse of intelligence tests, especially in the US during and just after the first world war, when testing of both immigrants and army recruits can probably be described as prime examples of institutionalised racism and bias.
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When Alex Bellos was asked if any strange suggestions came up in his exploration of favourite numbers (25 June, p 29), he said 73, because a character in the comedy show The Big Bang Theory had described it as the “Chuck Norris of numbers”.
There may be another explanation for its popularity. In Morse code, abbreviations are used for common words to save time, such as TX for “transmitter” and RX for “receiver”. In this list are some numbers, including 73 for “best wishes” and 88 for “love and kisses”.
Not only are most of the 2.6 million radio amateurs , but also anyone who knows Morse code. It would be interesting to know if 88 gets a high score too.
For the record
鈥� Pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck, which has stopped supplying pentobarbital to US death row prisons (9 July, p 5), is based in Copenhagen, Denmark