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Sweet smell of fungi
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predictions are known to more than a few. Rayleigh, Essex, UK From Michael Bell Turchin’s 50-year cycle may be a rediscovery of the 70-year economic cycle proposed in 1925 by Nikolai Kondratiev. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK From Ted Webber “There is a tide in the affairs of men” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4, scene 3). We fail again and again, however, to learn from the past: and now history is a discipline in decline due to lack of interest. Buderim, Queensland, Australia
Life on Mars From Javier Martín-Torres, science lead, Rover Environmental Monitoring Station The sentence, “Curiosity begins its epic search for signs of life” on the front cover of your magazine (11 August) is misleading. The aim of Curiosity is not to search for life on Mars. It is not loaded with the suite of instruments that would pursue that goal, unlike, for example, the Viking landers. Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars had ever had an environment able to support small life forms. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability”. The search for habitability is not synonymous with a search for life. Madrid, Spain
Sweet smell of fungi Name withheld In light of reports about microbiomes and the positive effects of certain bacteria and fungi in our environment (for example, 28 July, p 32), I have an anecdote to share. Some time ago, I had the misfortune to contract thrush, for which my partner and I took oral anti-yeast tablets. Within 24 hours of taking the tablets we noticed that our characteristic smells (of which we were both quite fond) had disappeared: from breath, skin and other more intimate parts. The effect was so profound we even noticed a slight diminution of sexual attraction towards one another, though being aware of the cause we laughed about it and kept our fingers crossed it would pass. Fortunately, it did, and our personal scents made a welcome return after a week or so. I recall suggestions that finding another’s smell attractive may imply you have complementary immune systems (23 July 2005, p 12). I wonder whether there is a more direct reproductive advantage to certain beneficial components of the microbiome in terms of sexual attractiveness. York, UK
After Higgs From Tommy Ohlsson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology You write about the euphoria following the likely discovery of the Higgs particle (14 July, p 3) but send a negative signal that the young generation of physicists could run out of problems, since finding the Higgs particle marks “the end of the road”. However, most theories and models in particle physics have assumed its existence, and this is just one particle, albeit the final piece of the standard model. Thus, since the standard model is not the whole story, there are still many opportunities for young
question a seemingly altruistic scheme in the greater context of profit and politics. West Calder, West Lothian, UK
Ranking algorithms
scientists to make important contributions in searches for new physics such as supersymmetry, extra dimensions, and the nature of dark matter, of which we have no signs so far. Indeed, there is much to discover and construct theories and models for. Stockholm, Sweden From Chas Bazeley Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods above CERN, Dr Spooner and his team are still searching for the elusive Hoggs Bison. Colchester, Essex, UK. The editor writes: n Oddly, the Fermilab accelerator site in Illinois does have bison.
Golden opportunity? From Mandy Meikle There are, as you say, reasons to be wary of genetically modified crops promoted by big business (18 August, p 3). Mistrust of the multinational corporations that would ultimately control such developments, humanitarian or otherwise, is too often overlooked. Randall Amster suggests that “perhaps we can even conceive an ‘anarchist science’ that seeks progress towards cooperative and empathetic impulses, decentralised production of life’s essentials, and restoration of the commons to promote collective wealth and environmental sustainability” (7 July, p 26). While anarchist science may be a tall order, anarchist multinationalism is an oxymoron. We should always
From Roger Hull I was surprised that in your look at the simplex algorithm (11 August, p 32), the list “2000 years of algorithms” does not include the well-known Dijkstra algorithm (published in 1959) for finding the shortest path through a weighted graph. This is the basis for internet routing protocols and thus a challenger for the title “the algorithm that runs the world”. Hindhead, Surrey, UK From Andrew Thompson I always thought that the ultimate algorithm was the one that enables us to count, by testing whether an integer is equal to, greater than or less than another. Without this we really don’t get much beyond a proto-caveman looking for his first cave. Northmoor, Oxfordshire, UK
For the record n We misquoted Jeff Youngblood as saying that nanocrystalline cellulose is 2 nanometres long: it is 200 nanometres long (18 August, p 24). We also incorrectly said that it has eight times the tensile strength of stainless steel – that should have been the strength-to-weight ratio. Sorry. n The dieting that may produce ketosis is high-fat and lowcarbohydrate, not the fat-free kind (18 August, p 30). 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.
8 September 2012 | NewScientist | 29
predictions are known to more than a few. Rayleigh, Essex, UK From Michael Bell Turchin’s 50-year cycle may be a rediscovery of the 70-year economic cycle proposed in 1925 by Nikolai Kondratiev. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK From Ted Webber “There is a tide in the affairs of men” (William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4, scene 3). We fail again and again, however, to learn from the past: and now history is a discipline in decline due to lack of interest. Buderim, Queensland, Australia
Life on Mars From Javier Martín-Torres, science lead, Rover Environmental Monitoring Station The sentence, “Curiosity begins its epic search for signs of life” on the front cover of your magazine (11 August) is misleading. The aim of Curiosity is not to search for life on Mars. It is not loaded with the suite of instruments that would pursue that goal, unlike, for example, the Viking landers. Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars had ever had an environment able to support small life forms. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability”. The search for habitability is not synonymous with a search for life. Madrid, Spain
Sweet smell of fungi Name withheld In light of reports about microbiomes and the positive effects of certain bacteria and fungi in our environment (for example, 28 July, p 32), I have an anecdote to share. Some time ago, I had the misfortune to contract thrush, for which my partner and I took oral anti-yeast tablets. Within 24 hours of taking the tablets we noticed that our characteristic smells (of which we were both quite fond) had disappeared: from breath, skin and other more intimate parts. The effect was so profound we even noticed a slight diminution of sexual attraction towards one another, though being aware of the cause we laughed about it and kept our fingers crossed it would pass. Fortunately, it did, and our personal scents made a welcome return after a week or so. I recall suggestions that finding another’s smell attractive may imply you have complementary immune systems (23 July 2005, p 12). I wonder whether there is a more direct reproductive advantage to certain beneficial components of the microbiome in terms of sexual attractiveness. York, UK
After Higgs From Tommy Ohlsson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology You write about the euphoria following the likely discovery of the Higgs particle (14 July, p 3) but send a negative signal that the young generation of physicists could run out of problems, since finding the Higgs particle marks “the end of the road”. However, most theories and models in particle physics have assumed its existence, and this is just one particle, albeit the final piece of the standard model. Thus, since the standard model is not the whole story, there are still many opportunities for young
question a seemingly altruistic scheme in the greater context of profit and politics. West Calder, West Lothian, UK
Ranking algorithms
scientists to make important contributions in searches for new physics such as supersymmetry, extra dimensions, and the nature of dark matter, of which we have no signs so far. Indeed, there is much to discover and construct theories and models for. Stockholm, Sweden From Chas Bazeley Meanwhile, somewhere in the woods above CERN, Dr Spooner and his team are still searching for the elusive Hoggs Bison. Colchester, Essex, UK. The editor writes: n Oddly, the Fermilab accelerator site in Illinois does have bison.
Golden opportunity? From Mandy Meikle There are, as you say, reasons to be wary of genetically modified crops promoted by big business (18 August, p 3). Mistrust of the multinational corporations that would ultimately control such developments, humanitarian or otherwise, is too often overlooked. Randall Amster suggests that “perhaps we can even conceive an ‘anarchist science’ that seeks progress towards cooperative and empathetic impulses, decentralised production of life’s essentials, and restoration of the commons to promote collective wealth and environmental sustainability” (7 July, p 26). While anarchist science may be a tall order, anarchist multinationalism is an oxymoron. We should always
From Roger Hull I was surprised that in your look at the simplex algorithm (11 August, p 32), the list “2000 years of algorithms” does not include the well-known Dijkstra algorithm (published in 1959) for finding the shortest path through a weighted graph. This is the basis for internet routing protocols and thus a challenger for the title “the algorithm that runs the world”. Hindhead, Surrey, UK From Andrew Thompson I always thought that the ultimate algorithm was the one that enables us to count, by testing whether an integer is equal to, greater than or less than another. Without this we really don’t get much beyond a proto-caveman looking for his first cave. Northmoor, Oxfordshire, UK
For the record n We misquoted Jeff Youngblood as saying that nanocrystalline cellulose is 2 nanometres long: it is 200 nanometres long (18 August, p 24). We also incorrectly said that it has eight times the tensile strength of stainless steel – that should have been the strength-to-weight ratio. Sorry. n The dieting that may produce ketosis is high-fat and lowcarbohydrate, not the fat-free kind (18 August, p 30). 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.
8 September 2012 | NewScientist | 29