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3D or not 3D?
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selection can only operate on mutations, which are random, as Bonner mentions. Genetic drift, especially in small populations, is also a random process. It can mean a mutated gene ends up as the only version of that gene. Even the survival of a species is possible by chance rather than by adaption or fitness. I am sure evolutionary biologists can quote many other examples of chance in evolution. However, its existence does not undermine Darwin. Cambridge, UK From Tim Stevenson Bonner argues that there is a tendency for changes to persist, rather than be selected out, in
stages. So the BBC should take the long view and record as many programmes in 3D as it can. The technology will catch up. London, UK
Data footprint From Luis Sena Esteves After reading that data centres will surpass the aviation industry in carbon emissions by 2020 (6 July, p 38), I couldn’t help thinking that most internet users fail to realise the environmental cost of their activity. It seems ironic that storing millions of cute kitten videos, tweets and “status updates” might contribute to the extinction of big cats. Jakarta, Indonesia
Conscience offset
small organisms. Is it not more the case that small changes persist, but are more noticeable in small organisms? After all, nobody is really worrying too much about what might be the ecological niche for sticky-out ears. Prestwood, Buckinghamshire, UK
3D or not 3D? From Ted Rockley So the BBC is to stop producing 3D television programmes (13 July, p 23). The problem with 3D TV and its (arguably) waning popularity is that existing viewing systems are imperfect. But it’s likely that one day they will have improved and become much more appealing. All media go through experimental and development
From Christopher Betts Fred Pearce and subsequent letter writers are right to question the merits of eco-offsetting (22 June, p 26). It is hard enough to replicate habitats for wildlife in situ, let alone remotely. The elephant in the room is the UK’s planning system, which fails to say no and mean it when a site is too valuable to be disturbed, or to police and enforce ecological conditions when consent for development is granted. I have lost count of the wasted opportunities to integrate biodiversity enhancements because of this. Offsetting is a weasel word for a defective getout being misleadingly promoted as a sop to our conscience. We need nature on our doorsteps. Martley, Worcestershire, UK
Counter measures From Rowland McDonnell In his letter L. Clark seems to think the recently revealed massive surveillance by the US National Security Agency and others is
justified by the threat of terrorism, and that anyone who disagrees has lost all sense of perspective (13 July, p 32). In 2011, 32,367 people died on US roads: nearly a 9/11 death toll every month. Surveillance could easily reduce this. So how about a campaign for mandatory GPS tracking of all vehicles in the US so the government can detect and punish all bad driving? Surely such surveillance is justified to identify and punish poor drivers, since they’re a much bigger threat than terrorists. Or maybe we could have a civilised discussion about what’s a sensible response to a given threat. Wirral, Merseyside, UK
Baby boom From John Long Andy Robinson is right in noting that those people who produce the most offspring will increase their genetic representation in future generations (20 July, p 28). We seem to face an intractable dilemma. Malthusian predictions of collapse in the face of unconstrained population growth may have been delayed, but they seem unavoidable. Casselberry, Florida, US
Dust’s a devil From Martin Greenwood Nigel Henbest focuses on human issues associated with a permanent Mars settlement (13 July, p 43). There are of course many major technical issues to be overcome, such as providing oxygen, water and food, all of which require serious engineering solutions. A lot of equipment will have to be flown to Mars. Then there is also the issue of long-term maintenance of this infrastructure. One thing Mars does have in abundance is dust – and dust is the enemy of moving parts, particularly for long-term
colonisation. Machinery, no matter how carefully designed and built, will suffer. Stirling, Western Australia
Hail David From Bill Smith Science educator David Muir’s experiments to determine the sometimes painful effects of raindrop impacts are the work of genius and should not go unrewarded (The Last Word, 20 July). Will you be nominating him for an Ig Nobel prize? Helsby, Cheshire, UK
For the record n We must have been feeling a little giddy when we said the GPS-free car navigation system developed in Chicago (13 July, p 23) used motion sensors. It doesn’t. n Oops. In our story on musicians jamming while up to 3000 kilometres apart (13 July, p 21) we may have inadvertently broken the speed of light. Rather than the overall delay in the connection, it is the encoding and decoding of sound that takes just 5 milliseconds. Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Fax: +44 (0) 20 7611 1280 Email: [email protected] Include your full postal address and telephone number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to articles. We reserve the right to edit letters. Reed Business Information reserves the right to use any submissions sent to the letters column of New Scientist magazine, in any other format.
3 August 2013 | NewScientist | 31
selection can only operate on mutations, which are random, as Bonner mentions. Genetic drift, especially in small populations, is also a random process. It can mean a mutated gene ends up as the only version of that gene. Even the survival of a species is possible by chance rather than by adaption or fitness. I am sure evolutionary biologists can quote many other examples of chance in evolution. However, its existence does not undermine Darwin. Cambridge, UK From Tim Stevenson Bonner argues that there is a tendency for changes to persist, rather than be selected out, in
stages. So the BBC should take the long view and record as many programmes in 3D as it can. The technology will catch up. London, UK
Data footprint From Luis Sena Esteves After reading that data centres will surpass the aviation industry in carbon emissions by 2020 (6 July, p 38), I couldn’t help thinking that most internet users fail to realise the environmental cost of their activity. It seems ironic that storing millions of cute kitten videos, tweets and “status updates” might contribute to the extinction of big cats. Jakarta, Indonesia
Conscience offset
small organisms. Is it not more the case that small changes persist, but are more noticeable in small organisms? After all, nobody is really worrying too much about what might be the ecological niche for sticky-out ears. Prestwood, Buckinghamshire, UK
3D or not 3D? From Ted Rockley So the BBC is to stop producing 3D television programmes (13 July, p 23). The problem with 3D TV and its (arguably) waning popularity is that existing viewing systems are imperfect. But it’s likely that one day they will have improved and become much more appealing. All media go through experimental and development
From Christopher Betts Fred Pearce and subsequent letter writers are right to question the merits of eco-offsetting (22 June, p 26). It is hard enough to replicate habitats for wildlife in situ, let alone remotely. The elephant in the room is the UK’s planning system, which fails to say no and mean it when a site is too valuable to be disturbed, or to police and enforce ecological conditions when consent for development is granted. I have lost count of the wasted opportunities to integrate biodiversity enhancements because of this. Offsetting is a weasel word for a defective getout being misleadingly promoted as a sop to our conscience. We need nature on our doorsteps. Martley, Worcestershire, UK
Counter measures From Rowland McDonnell In his letter L. Clark seems to think the recently revealed massive surveillance by the US National Security Agency and others is
justified by the threat of terrorism, and that anyone who disagrees has lost all sense of perspective (13 July, p 32). In 2011, 32,367 people died on US roads: nearly a 9/11 death toll every month. Surveillance could easily reduce this. So how about a campaign for mandatory GPS tracking of all vehicles in the US so the government can detect and punish all bad driving? Surely such surveillance is justified to identify and punish poor drivers, since they’re a much bigger threat than terrorists. Or maybe we could have a civilised discussion about what’s a sensible response to a given threat. Wirral, Merseyside, UK
Baby boom From John Long Andy Robinson is right in noting that those people who produce the most offspring will increase their genetic representation in future generations (20 July, p 28). We seem to face an intractable dilemma. Malthusian predictions of collapse in the face of unconstrained population growth may have been delayed, but they seem unavoidable. Casselberry, Florida, US
Dust’s a devil From Martin Greenwood Nigel Henbest focuses on human issues associated with a permanent Mars settlement (13 July, p 43). There are of course many major technical issues to be overcome, such as providing oxygen, water and food, all of which require serious engineering solutions. A lot of equipment will have to be flown to Mars. Then there is also the issue of long-term maintenance of this infrastructure. One thing Mars does have in abundance is dust – and dust is the enemy of moving parts, particularly for long-term
colonisation. Machinery, no matter how carefully designed and built, will suffer. Stirling, Western Australia
Hail David From Bill Smith Science educator David Muir’s experiments to determine the sometimes painful effects of raindrop impacts are the work of genius and should not go unrewarded (The Last Word, 20 July). Will you be nominating him for an Ig Nobel prize? Helsby, Cheshire, UK
For the record n We must have been feeling a little giddy when we said the GPS-free car navigation system developed in Chicago (13 July, p 23) used motion sensors. It doesn’t. n Oops. In our story on musicians jamming while up to 3000 kilometres apart (13 July, p 21) we may have inadvertently broken the speed of light. Rather than the overall delay in the connection, it is the encoding and decoding of sound that takes just 5 milliseconds. Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Fax: +44 (0) 20 7611 1280 Email: [email protected] Include your full postal address and telephone number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to articles. We reserve the right to edit letters. Reed Business Information reserves the right to use any submissions sent to the letters column of New Scientist magazine, in any other format.
3 August 2013 | NewScientist | 31