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Badger jabs
OPINION LETTERS The real deal
C E B D A
D A C E B
B E B D A
C D A C E
From Ronnie Hawkins As a philosopher with a background in biological science, I applaud your recent special issue on reality (29 September, p 34) as a valuable marker of where we are, and aren’t, on this important topic. The take-home message is that those parts of “reality” that are simply our human E constructions – “objects” such that “if everyone stopped B believing in them, they would D cease to exist” – serve as obstacles preventing us from dealing with A the actual realities of climate C change, biodiversity loss, and other human-generated threats to our continued existence. A We linguistic primates create these “objects” and therefore C we can change them, or even E abolish them. B How about a special issue on reality, take two: our human D social constructions and how they
might be readjusted to fit within a functioning biosphere? Chuluota, Florida, US From Faith Anstey Some hard scientists believe that physical reality ultimately boils down to consciousness, while some softer scientists say that consciousness is ultimately an illusion. It would be interesting if both propositions were correct. Dalguise, Perthshire, UK
After a fashion From Stuart Henderson I suggest an alternative to “truth decay” in explaining the half-life of citations (22 September, p 36). New lines of research that give hope of a breakthrough attract many researchers, who then publish on them. Over time, progress generally slows and the breakthrough fails to happen, so researchers switch in droves to the next hot topic.
Enigma Number 1722
Double Latin Bob Walker Joe has a set of 25 cards, one side red and one side green. He has written one of the numbers 1 to 5 on each side of each card such that no two cards are identical. He asked Penny to arrange the cards in a 5-by-5 square, so that, red side up or green side up (after turning cards over one at a time), she produced a very special Latin Square in which not only were numbers not duplicated in any row, column or diagonal, but also where two cards touched corner to corner. The
1 L A T I N
3 2 4 5
2 positions of some of the numbers in Penny’s solution are shown above. What are the numbers hidden under L A T I N?
WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 5 December. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1722, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address). Answer to 1716 Pyramid selling: 3 tetrahedrons; 50 per cent increase The winner Steve Collins of Reading, Berkshire, UK
30 | NewScientist | 3 November 2012
The papers then cease to be cited, not because the results have been falsified, but because, like old pop songs no longer played on the radio, they have merely gone out of fashion. Canberra, Australia
Times are changing From Bryn Glover In her letter, Susan Hall identifies many behavioural patterns that would have been socially acceptable in the past, but which we now find unacceptable, such as racism(13 October, p 31). It is worth pointing out that various behavioural memes connected with rationality, fairness, altruism, propriety and egalitarianism have been growing and spreading in recent centuries, and at an accelerated pace in recent decades. We can hope that this will lead humanity to support and work towards social and political structures that will enable us to survive climate or resource crises. Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK
Reality made simple From Ian Duerdoth Amanda Gefter endorsed physicist Eugene Wigner’s sentiments on “The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences” (29 September, p 38). Perhaps there is a simple and straightforward explanation for the prescience of mathematics.
Think of mathematics as essentially the study and classification of all possible logical structures, of all possible patterns. The range is huge and includes the properties of integers, the pattern of prime numbers, the properties of geometries with curved space, and so on. Looking at the natural world around us, we observe patterns: the structure of atoms, the motion of the moon, the time of eclipses, the tick-tock of a clock and so on. So it is no surprise that the patterns observed in nature are a subset of the patterns described by mathematics and that the order seen in the natural world is well described by the appropriate mathematics. Sometimes we see part of a pattern and make a good guess at the complete structure. Consider the standard model of elementary particles, which predicted the Higgs boson. Mathematics is not making a prediction about the physical world; rather, we are making a guess at the correct complete pattern. It follows that mathematics is less effective in subjects such as economics and the social sciences, where only limited order and structure are observed and the patterns are unclear. Henbury, Cheshire, UK
Badger jabs From Martyn Vaughan It is not the case that “farmers in England and Wales are keen to get on with the controversial cull” of badgers (20 October, p 8). No cull was planned in Wales: instead the Welsh government has opted for a trial vaccination program. Newport, South Wales, UK
Genetically mollified From Colin Johnston Michael Marshall’s article fails to address the major concerns of those of us who are alarmed
C E B D A
D A C E B
B E B D A
C D A C E
From Ronnie Hawkins As a philosopher with a background in biological science, I applaud your recent special issue on reality (29 September, p 34) as a valuable marker of where we are, and aren’t, on this important topic. The take-home message is that those parts of “reality” that are simply our human E constructions – “objects” such that “if everyone stopped B believing in them, they would D cease to exist” – serve as obstacles preventing us from dealing with A the actual realities of climate C change, biodiversity loss, and other human-generated threats to our continued existence. A We linguistic primates create these “objects” and therefore C we can change them, or even E abolish them. B How about a special issue on reality, take two: our human D social constructions and how they
might be readjusted to fit within a functioning biosphere? Chuluota, Florida, US From Faith Anstey Some hard scientists believe that physical reality ultimately boils down to consciousness, while some softer scientists say that consciousness is ultimately an illusion. It would be interesting if both propositions were correct. Dalguise, Perthshire, UK
After a fashion From Stuart Henderson I suggest an alternative to “truth decay” in explaining the half-life of citations (22 September, p 36). New lines of research that give hope of a breakthrough attract many researchers, who then publish on them. Over time, progress generally slows and the breakthrough fails to happen, so researchers switch in droves to the next hot topic.
Enigma Number 1722
Double Latin Bob Walker Joe has a set of 25 cards, one side red and one side green. He has written one of the numbers 1 to 5 on each side of each card such that no two cards are identical. He asked Penny to arrange the cards in a 5-by-5 square, so that, red side up or green side up (after turning cards over one at a time), she produced a very special Latin Square in which not only were numbers not duplicated in any row, column or diagonal, but also where two cards touched corner to corner. The
1 L A T I N
3 2 4 5
2 positions of some of the numbers in Penny’s solution are shown above. What are the numbers hidden under L A T I N?
WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 5 December. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1722, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address). Answer to 1716 Pyramid selling: 3 tetrahedrons; 50 per cent increase The winner Steve Collins of Reading, Berkshire, UK
30 | NewScientist | 3 November 2012
The papers then cease to be cited, not because the results have been falsified, but because, like old pop songs no longer played on the radio, they have merely gone out of fashion. Canberra, Australia
Times are changing From Bryn Glover In her letter, Susan Hall identifies many behavioural patterns that would have been socially acceptable in the past, but which we now find unacceptable, such as racism(13 October, p 31). It is worth pointing out that various behavioural memes connected with rationality, fairness, altruism, propriety and egalitarianism have been growing and spreading in recent centuries, and at an accelerated pace in recent decades. We can hope that this will lead humanity to support and work towards social and political structures that will enable us to survive climate or resource crises. Cracoe, North Yorkshire, UK
Reality made simple From Ian Duerdoth Amanda Gefter endorsed physicist Eugene Wigner’s sentiments on “The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences” (29 September, p 38). Perhaps there is a simple and straightforward explanation for the prescience of mathematics.
Think of mathematics as essentially the study and classification of all possible logical structures, of all possible patterns. The range is huge and includes the properties of integers, the pattern of prime numbers, the properties of geometries with curved space, and so on. Looking at the natural world around us, we observe patterns: the structure of atoms, the motion of the moon, the time of eclipses, the tick-tock of a clock and so on. So it is no surprise that the patterns observed in nature are a subset of the patterns described by mathematics and that the order seen in the natural world is well described by the appropriate mathematics. Sometimes we see part of a pattern and make a good guess at the complete structure. Consider the standard model of elementary particles, which predicted the Higgs boson. Mathematics is not making a prediction about the physical world; rather, we are making a guess at the correct complete pattern. It follows that mathematics is less effective in subjects such as economics and the social sciences, where only limited order and structure are observed and the patterns are unclear. Henbury, Cheshire, UK
Badger jabs From Martyn Vaughan It is not the case that “farmers in England and Wales are keen to get on with the controversial cull” of badgers (20 October, p 8). No cull was planned in Wales: instead the Welsh government has opted for a trial vaccination program. Newport, South Wales, UK
Genetically mollified From Colin Johnston Michael Marshall’s article fails to address the major concerns of those of us who are alarmed