Yes, psychiatry is in need of a new direction
Your plea to embrace new ways of thinking about mental health conditions caught my attention. As far as I can tell, the methods psychiatry uses today and the theory, or lack thereof, on which they are based don’t seem to have changed since the 1980s Leader, 1 October.
As you pointed out, a central “accepted fact” in this field, the role of serotonin in depression, appears to be in doubt. Is there any other branch of science that has shown such an appalling lack of progress? Is psychiatry even a science? These questions have been asked before and seem to await answers still.
Growth often seems to run counter to climate policies (1)
Michael Le Page reports on “Alarm at UK growth push”, but doesn’t mention the area of concern that some would say is of greatest significance, the idea that capitalist growth is incompatible with tackling climate change 1 October, p 7.
Growth often seems to run counter to climate policies (2)
Like many others, I am bemused and alarmed by the lack of action taken by the UK government to mitigate climate change. Is its latest policy emphasis on “growth” going to help? Surely not.
A more realistic approach would be “dynamic stability”, in which, as outmoded industries shrink, more eco-friendly ones are encouraged to grow: coal mines are replaced by wind turbines, oil wells by photovoltaic panels, monocultures by diverse land management and so on. This can be nudged in the right direction by regulation and taxation.
Don't get too excited about superluminal messaging
Your report of this year’s physics Nobel prize asserts the winners showed “information could be instantly transmitted over infinite distances” 8 October, p 9. . It can still only be transmitted at a maximum speed equal to the speed of light in a vacuum.
What the winners showed was that nature can’t be represented by a local-realistic model of the sort Albert Einstein favoured. , as Niels Bohr believed and as quantum mechanics asserted. This ended the Bohr-Einstein debate over the completeness of quantum mechanics in Bohr’s favour.
For a vegan pet, we could opt for herbivores
“Meat-free mutts and moggies” left me wondering about the environmental impact of making the vitamins, minerals and amino acids needed to supplement vegan pet foods so they meet dogs’ and cats’ dietary requirements 24 September, p 44.
Perhaps it is better to pick a pet species that is herbivorous, such as a rabbit, tortoise or parrot. Goats can be housebroken, too. There are plenty of pets that can be eco-friendly without raising hackles over humane treatment.
Peacock feathers are far from wasteful
In her look at status signals, Solitaire Townsend wrote that Charles Darwin believed “male peacocks’ ostentatious feathers prove to females that they are so adept” they can afford to grow big, bright, utterly wasteful plumage 24 September, p 25. If Darwin really did think this, he can’t have spent any real time watching peacocks because those feathers are far from wasteful.
If an unknown or aggressive dog, for example, approaches a peacock, up go those feathers and the dog stops in its tracks. The key factor is the “eyes” on their tails, a common strategy used by animals to startle and repel predators.
What the male means when he displays this to a mate is “look at how capable I am of scaring away enemies and protecting you and our chicks”.
Where did all the UK's outdoor pools go?
I enjoyed Mark Harper’s call for Britons to do more outdoor, cold-water swimming 17 September, p 25.
It is sad that many lidos, once common in the UK, have closed. Compare this with Germany, where municipal Freib盲der (outdoor pools) are part of the culture and very popular, at least in the summer months, while winter sea swimming is a fairly common pastime in the north.
The Scandinavians go even further, embracing ice-water bathing, often in association with communal saunas. Perhaps this is partly why the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians rank high on measures of happiness, the people of the northern coastal state of Schleswig-Holstein are the happiest in Germany and all are generally healthier than the Brits.
Methane leak is a drop in the global warming ocean
The estimated 177 million cubic metres of gas that leaked from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is less than 120,000 tonnes of methane 8 October, p 8. The effect of that on our climate is negligible in a world where we emit about 30 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
A more complicated take on the formula for BMI
Further to Larry Stoter’s idea of changing the formula for body mass index, there are various indices of body build calculated as functions of weight and height Letters, 1 October. I once suggested weight squared over height cubed would have optimal correlation with obesity as measured by skin-fold thickness, but some colleagues thought this might be too complicated.
Staking claims on the moon may stoke conflict
There is no need to mine the moon, especially for profit, or to establish bases belonging to individual nations. Both are a recipe for conflict 17 September, p 38. We should be using our wealth and expertise to solve the many increasing problems here on our wonderful Earth. The moon can be left for 1000 years or more. We might still be here then, especially if we focus fully on the problems of the here and now.
For the record
It was the effect of the wavelength of blue light that was tested in connection with sleep (10 September, p 12).
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