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History at stake
See newscientist.com for letters on: ● Reason, to be cheerful ● History at stake
have large radio-controlled aerobatic models – effectively UAVs for leisure purposes. London, UK
widest possible audience and brings honour to all involved. An academic in a developing country should be congratulated for such an achievement, not criticised. Leiden, The Netherlands
Journal jaundice From Stephen Donovan Priya Shetty took a very one-sided view of scientific publishing in the developing world (12 July, p 20). As a member of teaching staff at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, from 1986 to 1998 and editor of the Journal of the Geological Society of Jamaica from 1989 to 1991, I feel I have first-hand experience. In truth, the principal stakeholders – the scientists themselves, their universities and their funding agencies – want to see their best research published in the best journals, which rarely means in the local journals favoured by Shetty. This is hardly surprising, and is as true for the University of Oxford or Harvard University as it is for the University of the West Indies. As Richard Smith observed in The Trouble with Medical Journals (RSM Press, 2006, p 186): “Journals in developing countries… are often edited by a lone editor who does everything,
Breast bank From Magda Sachs You report research on formula milk ingredients (12 July, p 38). This is funded by companies hoping to profit from efforts to mimic human milk. If society is concerned about the well-being of the ultimate consumers – the babies who ingest these new fluids – a different solution to feeding the small minority who cannot be breastfed is possible. Investment in human milk banks would be a low-cost, low-technology solution and is feasible even in adverse circumstances – as demonstrated by the work of iThemba Lethu (www.ithembalethu.org.za/ bmbank.html), a South African milk bank dedicated to providing donated milk to AIDS orphans. In a richer country such as the UK, if the will existed, milk banks could distribute to all babies orphaned or otherwise unable to breastfeed from their mothers. Some hospitals already have such facilities, and many very premature babies are saved by donated milk. It is up to all of us to remember that there are noncommercial ways to approach the problem of ensuring that babies receive a good start in life. Oldham, Lancashire, UK
It’s a dog’s life… again
don’t receive enough articles, are desperately short of resources and go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Often they are not even read by the people they are published for.” Publishing an important paper in a leading journal reaches the www.newscientist.com
From Jane Young How many laboratory animals underwent medical or surgical procedures so that Lou Hawthorne could pose with his three cloned dogs (19 July, p 44)? How many other animals will experience unnecessary suffering in order for obscenely rich people to acquire designer pets? Owaka, New Zealand
Smells like… what? From Colum Clarke I must take issue with Mick O’Hare’s assertion that an anosmia “sufferer” experiences “agony” (19 July, p 46). I have never smelled a thing since birth, unless the irritation of ammonia fumes counts as a smell. Lyall Watson, in his book Jacobson’s Organ, asserts that anyone without a sense of smell would feel suicidal. I do not feel the slightest loss, nor do I have suicidal tendencies. My life experience of other people’s sense of smell is of
short spontaneous-fission halflives of necessary intermediates (26 July, p 32). If the bottom-up synthesis of long-lived superheavy nuclides cannot work, what about a top-down process featuring neutron-rich material like that found in neutron stars? Many observed “gamma-ray burst” events (GMBs) are thought to result from neutron stars coalescing. These are very energetic events indeed, but it may be possible that their ejecta would include very large, neutron-rich nuclei. Such events are much rarer than supernovae, so even if they generate long-lived, neutron-rich superheavy isotopes, these will be rare. Has anyone looked at the spectra of the afterglows of these GMBs? Or searched for signs of superheavy nuclei in cosmic rays? Cambridge, UK
For the record
hearing a long litany of complaints about the smell of boiling cabbage, farm slurry… and my (occasional) farts. Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow, Ireland Mick O’Hare writes: ● I should have said “late-onset anosmia”. Having once had taste and smell and then losing them can be agony. Many who have never experienced these senses tell me it’s neither here nor there. Suicides have been recorded among sufferers of late-onset anosmia.
Naturally superheavy From Chris Heron Tim Dean quotes David Hinde of the Australian National University at Canberra, who believes that superheavy elements may not form in supernovae because of the very
● We described the Iberian lynx as a “big cat” (2 August, p 6). It is not a member of the Pantherinae (big cats like tigers) but of the Felinae (all smaller cats, including domestic cats). ● We said that “states that relinquish any ambition to build conventional nuclear stations will be given the opportunity to buy the new secure reactors” (2 August, p 34). The deal offered by the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is actually that the countries agree not to build fuelenrichment and reprocessing plants, in exchange for a guaranteed supply of fuel for their existing power plants – and then for the “reactor in a box” when or if it becomes available. ● An editing error had us saying that the Rocket Racing League was founded in 1995 (26 July, p 29). It was actually 2005. 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.
16 August 2008 | NewScientist | 19
have large radio-controlled aerobatic models – effectively UAVs for leisure purposes. London, UK
widest possible audience and brings honour to all involved. An academic in a developing country should be congratulated for such an achievement, not criticised. Leiden, The Netherlands
Journal jaundice From Stephen Donovan Priya Shetty took a very one-sided view of scientific publishing in the developing world (12 July, p 20). As a member of teaching staff at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica, from 1986 to 1998 and editor of the Journal of the Geological Society of Jamaica from 1989 to 1991, I feel I have first-hand experience. In truth, the principal stakeholders – the scientists themselves, their universities and their funding agencies – want to see their best research published in the best journals, which rarely means in the local journals favoured by Shetty. This is hardly surprising, and is as true for the University of Oxford or Harvard University as it is for the University of the West Indies. As Richard Smith observed in The Trouble with Medical Journals (RSM Press, 2006, p 186): “Journals in developing countries… are often edited by a lone editor who does everything,
Breast bank From Magda Sachs You report research on formula milk ingredients (12 July, p 38). This is funded by companies hoping to profit from efforts to mimic human milk. If society is concerned about the well-being of the ultimate consumers – the babies who ingest these new fluids – a different solution to feeding the small minority who cannot be breastfed is possible. Investment in human milk banks would be a low-cost, low-technology solution and is feasible even in adverse circumstances – as demonstrated by the work of iThemba Lethu (www.ithembalethu.org.za/ bmbank.html), a South African milk bank dedicated to providing donated milk to AIDS orphans. In a richer country such as the UK, if the will existed, milk banks could distribute to all babies orphaned or otherwise unable to breastfeed from their mothers. Some hospitals already have such facilities, and many very premature babies are saved by donated milk. It is up to all of us to remember that there are noncommercial ways to approach the problem of ensuring that babies receive a good start in life. Oldham, Lancashire, UK
It’s a dog’s life… again
don’t receive enough articles, are desperately short of resources and go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Often they are not even read by the people they are published for.” Publishing an important paper in a leading journal reaches the www.newscientist.com
From Jane Young How many laboratory animals underwent medical or surgical procedures so that Lou Hawthorne could pose with his three cloned dogs (19 July, p 44)? How many other animals will experience unnecessary suffering in order for obscenely rich people to acquire designer pets? Owaka, New Zealand
Smells like… what? From Colum Clarke I must take issue with Mick O’Hare’s assertion that an anosmia “sufferer” experiences “agony” (19 July, p 46). I have never smelled a thing since birth, unless the irritation of ammonia fumes counts as a smell. Lyall Watson, in his book Jacobson’s Organ, asserts that anyone without a sense of smell would feel suicidal. I do not feel the slightest loss, nor do I have suicidal tendencies. My life experience of other people’s sense of smell is of
short spontaneous-fission halflives of necessary intermediates (26 July, p 32). If the bottom-up synthesis of long-lived superheavy nuclides cannot work, what about a top-down process featuring neutron-rich material like that found in neutron stars? Many observed “gamma-ray burst” events (GMBs) are thought to result from neutron stars coalescing. These are very energetic events indeed, but it may be possible that their ejecta would include very large, neutron-rich nuclei. Such events are much rarer than supernovae, so even if they generate long-lived, neutron-rich superheavy isotopes, these will be rare. Has anyone looked at the spectra of the afterglows of these GMBs? Or searched for signs of superheavy nuclei in cosmic rays? Cambridge, UK
For the record
hearing a long litany of complaints about the smell of boiling cabbage, farm slurry… and my (occasional) farts. Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow, Ireland Mick O’Hare writes: ● I should have said “late-onset anosmia”. Having once had taste and smell and then losing them can be agony. Many who have never experienced these senses tell me it’s neither here nor there. Suicides have been recorded among sufferers of late-onset anosmia.
Naturally superheavy From Chris Heron Tim Dean quotes David Hinde of the Australian National University at Canberra, who believes that superheavy elements may not form in supernovae because of the very
● We described the Iberian lynx as a “big cat” (2 August, p 6). It is not a member of the Pantherinae (big cats like tigers) but of the Felinae (all smaller cats, including domestic cats). ● We said that “states that relinquish any ambition to build conventional nuclear stations will be given the opportunity to buy the new secure reactors” (2 August, p 34). The deal offered by the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is actually that the countries agree not to build fuelenrichment and reprocessing plants, in exchange for a guaranteed supply of fuel for their existing power plants – and then for the “reactor in a box” when or if it becomes available. ● An editing error had us saying that the Rocket Racing League was founded in 1995 (26 July, p 29). It was actually 2005. 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.
16 August 2008 | NewScientist | 19