- Email: [email protected]
Not scared, just insecure
See newscientist.com for letters on: ● If program, then… ● Colourful language ● Asteroid deflection ● Termite history ● Not scared, just insecure
correcting the effect of tonnes of pico-satellites in space are small. A reflective ocean blanket, by contrast, would be relatively easy to adjust. There is a further disadvantage of the high-tech shading methods. The technology will be controlled by the richest, most powerful country at the time, which will, in effect, control the climate of the whole planet. Less influential countries may be unhappy with the climate that they get. A relatively low-tech solution would permit a genuine negotiation over climate. Reading, Berkshire, UK
Boycott – or not From Chana Lajcher The letter from Hilda Meers (30 June, p 22) contains some mistakes. Universities and colleges in Israel do not have military checkpoints at the gate. They have civilian security guards, like the guards at the entrance to restaurants, supermarkets and kindergartens. These are similar to airport security and are there for precisely the same reason. Secondly, although I have been in Israeli academic circles for many years, I do not recall any incidents of college students being imprisoned for their choice of reading material. As a college librarian I would certainly have heard of this. Lastly, as a practising Orthodox Jew, I was not aware that Zionism, (the desire of Jews to live in a Jewish country located where the Jewish Bible and tradition place it) was not inherent to Judaism. Jerusalem, Israel
Drought doubt From Steve Short, Ecoengineers A mere month after Rachel Nowak’s article emotively headed “The continent that ran dry” and your editorial (16 June, p 8 and p 5) the drought that gripped southwww.newscientist.com
eastern Australia from 2001 to 2006 broke with a vengeance. There was widespread flooding in eastern parts of the state of Victoria. I have been studying water management at a large mine site in central New South Wales, where the average annual rainfall over the 150 years up to 1999 for which there are records was exceeded in the first six months of 2007. Farmers are rejoicing because all indicators suggest that agricultural production in eastern Australia for 2007 will be the highest on record. So much for the dire warnings that this was a deep greenhouse-driven drought that would not break for at least decades to come and that agricultural production in eastern Australia would never recover to pre-greenhouse levels. It is interesting that 2007 marks not only the collapse of the El Niño conditions that generally applied from 2001, but also entry into the final quarter of the approximately 22-year Hale cycle of solar activity, in which annual rainfall has generally recovered to average levels or higher. It is also relevant that a recent study suggests that precipitation and total atmospheric water have increased at about the same rate over the past two decades. This runs counter to the predictions of global climate models that global precipitation would only increase by 1 to 3 per cent per degree of surface warming while the total amount of water in the atmosphere would increase by 7 per cent per degree. Mount Ousley, New South Wales, Australia
Oil’s well From Ian Duguid I have to take issue with the statement that oil production will start to decline after 2030 (7 July, p 28). For all of the time I have worked in the petroleum industry (nearly 60 years), the pundits have predicted the oil would run out in 20 to 30 years.
The earlier estimates have now been proved grossly inaccurate. Why? Because they were based on the technology available at the time. In the early 1950s no one dreamed of producing oil from the North Sea or other deep waters, still less from Arctic lands or seas. Economic processing of highly viscous crude oils like some now produced in Venezuela was similarly improbable. The same applies to the Athabasca tar sands in Canada. There is no doubt that petroleum is a finite resource, but at present I see little sign that the progress of technology in finding,
nature are there because they obey quantum rules. How then, were those rules laid down? Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
Pragmatic non-realists From Carl Looper Eric Van implies that quantum non-realists are chasing down some elusive goal (21 July, p 23). On the contrary. For many non-realists the only “reality” behind what we observe is that we (and our instruments) cannot actually experience any reality behind what we observe. And so we attend to modelling what we observe instead. This is hardly an elusive goal. Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia
An unsurprise
producing and processing it is slowing down. I would therefore be prepared to take on a bet with anyone that the prediction in the article is a serious underestimate. Unfortunately, it would up to my heirs to collect on the bet. Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire, UK
Laying down the laws From Emil Silvestru I am afraid Paul Davies has failed in laying down the laws of his own approach to flexi-laws in physics (30 June, p 30). Why would he use the term “law” for whatever is above the quantum domain, and “rule” for whatever is within it? Is there a difference between the two terms? If yes (as Davies seems to imply) he still has to tell us: how did the rules of quantum physics arise? Otherwise the solution he proposes to the Goldilocks enigma or “anthropic principle” is that the laws of
From Sergi Erill Your discussion of nanobacteria and their possible link with calcification in the body is exciting (23 June, p 38). It should not have come as a surprise, however, that tetracycline has an effect on calcification: it a wellknown calcium chelator. Barcelona, Spain
For the record ● A letter, “Ocean of doubt”, implied that deposits of calcium carbonate, from the shells of plankton, on shallow sea floors could help sequester carbon dioxide (28 July, p 22). In fact, the formation of calcium carbonate releases CO2 into seawater. Only the formation of sediments containing organic matter removes carbon dioxide.
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.
4 August 2007 | NewScientist | 21
correcting the effect of tonnes of pico-satellites in space are small. A reflective ocean blanket, by contrast, would be relatively easy to adjust. There is a further disadvantage of the high-tech shading methods. The technology will be controlled by the richest, most powerful country at the time, which will, in effect, control the climate of the whole planet. Less influential countries may be unhappy with the climate that they get. A relatively low-tech solution would permit a genuine negotiation over climate. Reading, Berkshire, UK
Boycott – or not From Chana Lajcher The letter from Hilda Meers (30 June, p 22) contains some mistakes. Universities and colleges in Israel do not have military checkpoints at the gate. They have civilian security guards, like the guards at the entrance to restaurants, supermarkets and kindergartens. These are similar to airport security and are there for precisely the same reason. Secondly, although I have been in Israeli academic circles for many years, I do not recall any incidents of college students being imprisoned for their choice of reading material. As a college librarian I would certainly have heard of this. Lastly, as a practising Orthodox Jew, I was not aware that Zionism, (the desire of Jews to live in a Jewish country located where the Jewish Bible and tradition place it) was not inherent to Judaism. Jerusalem, Israel
Drought doubt From Steve Short, Ecoengineers A mere month after Rachel Nowak’s article emotively headed “The continent that ran dry” and your editorial (16 June, p 8 and p 5) the drought that gripped southwww.newscientist.com
eastern Australia from 2001 to 2006 broke with a vengeance. There was widespread flooding in eastern parts of the state of Victoria. I have been studying water management at a large mine site in central New South Wales, where the average annual rainfall over the 150 years up to 1999 for which there are records was exceeded in the first six months of 2007. Farmers are rejoicing because all indicators suggest that agricultural production in eastern Australia for 2007 will be the highest on record. So much for the dire warnings that this was a deep greenhouse-driven drought that would not break for at least decades to come and that agricultural production in eastern Australia would never recover to pre-greenhouse levels. It is interesting that 2007 marks not only the collapse of the El Niño conditions that generally applied from 2001, but also entry into the final quarter of the approximately 22-year Hale cycle of solar activity, in which annual rainfall has generally recovered to average levels or higher. It is also relevant that a recent study suggests that precipitation and total atmospheric water have increased at about the same rate over the past two decades. This runs counter to the predictions of global climate models that global precipitation would only increase by 1 to 3 per cent per degree of surface warming while the total amount of water in the atmosphere would increase by 7 per cent per degree. Mount Ousley, New South Wales, Australia
Oil’s well From Ian Duguid I have to take issue with the statement that oil production will start to decline after 2030 (7 July, p 28). For all of the time I have worked in the petroleum industry (nearly 60 years), the pundits have predicted the oil would run out in 20 to 30 years.
The earlier estimates have now been proved grossly inaccurate. Why? Because they were based on the technology available at the time. In the early 1950s no one dreamed of producing oil from the North Sea or other deep waters, still less from Arctic lands or seas. Economic processing of highly viscous crude oils like some now produced in Venezuela was similarly improbable. The same applies to the Athabasca tar sands in Canada. There is no doubt that petroleum is a finite resource, but at present I see little sign that the progress of technology in finding,
nature are there because they obey quantum rules. How then, were those rules laid down? Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
Pragmatic non-realists From Carl Looper Eric Van implies that quantum non-realists are chasing down some elusive goal (21 July, p 23). On the contrary. For many non-realists the only “reality” behind what we observe is that we (and our instruments) cannot actually experience any reality behind what we observe. And so we attend to modelling what we observe instead. This is hardly an elusive goal. Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia
An unsurprise
producing and processing it is slowing down. I would therefore be prepared to take on a bet with anyone that the prediction in the article is a serious underestimate. Unfortunately, it would up to my heirs to collect on the bet. Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire, UK
Laying down the laws From Emil Silvestru I am afraid Paul Davies has failed in laying down the laws of his own approach to flexi-laws in physics (30 June, p 30). Why would he use the term “law” for whatever is above the quantum domain, and “rule” for whatever is within it? Is there a difference between the two terms? If yes (as Davies seems to imply) he still has to tell us: how did the rules of quantum physics arise? Otherwise the solution he proposes to the Goldilocks enigma or “anthropic principle” is that the laws of
From Sergi Erill Your discussion of nanobacteria and their possible link with calcification in the body is exciting (23 June, p 38). It should not have come as a surprise, however, that tetracycline has an effect on calcification: it a wellknown calcium chelator. Barcelona, Spain
For the record ● A letter, “Ocean of doubt”, implied that deposits of calcium carbonate, from the shells of plankton, on shallow sea floors could help sequester carbon dioxide (28 July, p 22). In fact, the formation of calcium carbonate releases CO2 into seawater. Only the formation of sediments containing organic matter removes carbon dioxide.
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.
4 August 2007 | NewScientist | 21