- Email: [email protected]
Wise words?
OPINION LETTERS Many voices From Peter Harrison Determining a person’s personality from their voice is more complicated than Tiffany O’Callaghan’s article suggests (13 July, p 38). Although I think I always speak in the same way, I am told that my voice differs depending on whether I am addressing a group or chatting at the dinner table. Some people appear to have a number of personalities, and the one they subconsciously present, with its attendant voice, is the one appropriate to the circumstance. So, any single test will only reveal a partial picture of such people. Fetcham, Surrey, UK
Dark particle From Paul Allen You report on the hunt for dark energy (11 May, p 32). My hypothesis is that dark matter and dark energy are different manifestations of the same
particle: an as-yet-undiscovered boson with a force that at galactic scale is attractive but at universal scale is repulsive (a sort of Higgs boson with multiple personality disorder). I dub it the phlogiston. Cardigan, Ceredigion, UK
that, as an ongoing condition of free trade, the US and Canada make sustained reductions equivalent to the Kyoto requirements. This could help Obama no end. London, UK
Wise words?
Look, no hands From Andrew Lockley I would like to comment on Jeff Hecht’s article on in-car, handsfree communications (20 July, p 24). However momentarily dangerous texting may be, it is very fast. The increase in total risk to drivers over an entire journey is therefore small. A drunk is drunk all the way. In contrast, a text takes seconds, and can be sent when cognitive load is low. Further, being connected while driving avoids wasted trips and detours, cutting journey times and avoiding hazards. The safest mile is the one not driven. Staying online while on the road is the safe and responsible thing to do. Milton Keynes, UK
Enigma Number 1760
From Kevon Kenna I would not operate a cellphone while driving. It is far too distracting. Yet I have operated a VHF two-way radio behind the wheel. Although not completely effortless, it is far less distracting. Much of the reason, I suspect, is that two-way radio use is governed by a communication protocol. It is a more formal exchange of words. Whose turn it is to speak is explicitly controlled by verbal markers like “over”, “out” and “say again”. With cellphones there is no such procedure, and one must listen to things like the tone-ofvoice and inflections. This is much more cognitively taxing. Forcett, Tasmania, Australia
Squares and cubes
Free to negotiate
PETER CHAMBERLAIN Each of the 12 white squares in the cross-figure grid shown is to be filled with a single digit. The four two-digit numbers and the four three-digit numbers created are either perfect squares or perfect cubes. These squares and cubes are all distinct, and one of the down answers is both a square and a cube. What are the answers to 6 across and 7 across?
From James Levy As Bob Ward writes, US president Barack Obama’s long-awaited emissions reduction plans face a rough ride through Congress (13 July, p 32). Amid such possible opposition, the European Union’s free trade talks with the US and Canada seem wrong-footed. The EU has the largest emissions reduction effort of developed countries in the Kyoto protocol. The US and Canada, now both outside Kyoto, emit far more per capita. Why should the EU reward them with free trade? And won’t some European countries demand, likewise, to stay in the free trade zone but opt out of EU-wide emissions controls? The EU must demand
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WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 28 August. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1760, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address). Answer to 1754 Elementary: There are 18 letters The winner Andrew Cudbertson of Gorsedd, Flintshire, UK
30 | NewScientist | 3 August 2013
From Paul G. Ellis Ian Hill in his letter compares Lady Churchill’s statement on the need for extravagance rather than thrift to advance science, and which has acquired the character of a proverb, with an opposing proverb on necessity as the spur for invention (20 July, p 29). It’s worth noting that most proverbs can be matched in this way, from which we can conclude that most proverbs encode no reliable knowledge at all. London, UK
No-growth please From Jon D’Arcy In his review of books on the links between environment and economy, Fred Pearce states that “a growing number of business people believe that only by tackling environmental resource issues head-on can they return to prosperity and growth” (6 July, p 42). This is a contradiction. What business people and the rest of the world must accept is that a new economic strategy of prosperity without growth must be devised. Anything else would be a disaster. Nowra, New South Wales, Australia
A chance of life From Robin Turner There are several ways in which chance plays a part in evolution. And they are applicable to large organisms as well as the microorganisms that John Bonner focuses on (20 July, p 26). First,
Dark particle From Paul Allen You report on the hunt for dark energy (11 May, p 32). My hypothesis is that dark matter and dark energy are different manifestations of the same
particle: an as-yet-undiscovered boson with a force that at galactic scale is attractive but at universal scale is repulsive (a sort of Higgs boson with multiple personality disorder). I dub it the phlogiston. Cardigan, Ceredigion, UK
that, as an ongoing condition of free trade, the US and Canada make sustained reductions equivalent to the Kyoto requirements. This could help Obama no end. London, UK
Wise words?
Look, no hands From Andrew Lockley I would like to comment on Jeff Hecht’s article on in-car, handsfree communications (20 July, p 24). However momentarily dangerous texting may be, it is very fast. The increase in total risk to drivers over an entire journey is therefore small. A drunk is drunk all the way. In contrast, a text takes seconds, and can be sent when cognitive load is low. Further, being connected while driving avoids wasted trips and detours, cutting journey times and avoiding hazards. The safest mile is the one not driven. Staying online while on the road is the safe and responsible thing to do. Milton Keynes, UK
Enigma Number 1760
From Kevon Kenna I would not operate a cellphone while driving. It is far too distracting. Yet I have operated a VHF two-way radio behind the wheel. Although not completely effortless, it is far less distracting. Much of the reason, I suspect, is that two-way radio use is governed by a communication protocol. It is a more formal exchange of words. Whose turn it is to speak is explicitly controlled by verbal markers like “over”, “out” and “say again”. With cellphones there is no such procedure, and one must listen to things like the tone-ofvoice and inflections. This is much more cognitively taxing. Forcett, Tasmania, Australia
Squares and cubes
Free to negotiate
PETER CHAMBERLAIN Each of the 12 white squares in the cross-figure grid shown is to be filled with a single digit. The four two-digit numbers and the four three-digit numbers created are either perfect squares or perfect cubes. These squares and cubes are all distinct, and one of the down answers is both a square and a cube. What are the answers to 6 across and 7 across?
From James Levy As Bob Ward writes, US president Barack Obama’s long-awaited emissions reduction plans face a rough ride through Congress (13 July, p 32). Amid such possible opposition, the European Union’s free trade talks with the US and Canada seem wrong-footed. The EU has the largest emissions reduction effort of developed countries in the Kyoto protocol. The US and Canada, now both outside Kyoto, emit far more per capita. Why should the EU reward them with free trade? And won’t some European countries demand, likewise, to stay in the free trade zone but opt out of EU-wide emissions controls? The EU must demand
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4
3
5
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WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 28 August. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1760, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address). Answer to 1754 Elementary: There are 18 letters The winner Andrew Cudbertson of Gorsedd, Flintshire, UK
30 | NewScientist | 3 August 2013
From Paul G. Ellis Ian Hill in his letter compares Lady Churchill’s statement on the need for extravagance rather than thrift to advance science, and which has acquired the character of a proverb, with an opposing proverb on necessity as the spur for invention (20 July, p 29). It’s worth noting that most proverbs can be matched in this way, from which we can conclude that most proverbs encode no reliable knowledge at all. London, UK
No-growth please From Jon D’Arcy In his review of books on the links between environment and economy, Fred Pearce states that “a growing number of business people believe that only by tackling environmental resource issues head-on can they return to prosperity and growth” (6 July, p 42). This is a contradiction. What business people and the rest of the world must accept is that a new economic strategy of prosperity without growth must be devised. Anything else would be a disaster. Nowra, New South Wales, Australia
A chance of life From Robin Turner There are several ways in which chance plays a part in evolution. And they are applicable to large organisms as well as the microorganisms that John Bonner focuses on (20 July, p 26). First,