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Time figured out
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can fit the huge range of problems it encounters. It is not a lagging horse on the same racecourse as physics, but a response to an entirely different set of problems. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK From Jeremy Holmes, School of Psychology, University of Exeter Craddock is right that academic psychiatry in the UK fails to capture the imagination of the public and young doctors. But his prescription – lots more neuroscience – won’t save the day. Psychiatry is inherently a marriage of art and science, and Craddock therefore needs to encompass the art of human relationships as well as the brain’s biochemistry if he is to see the progress he wants. Exeter, Devon, UK
No animals required From Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of AnimalsIn your editorial you ask whether society would accept the use of “humanised” animal organs for transplant surgery (20 April, p 3). As we continue to expand our knowledge of animals, using other species for such purposes becomes more, not less, of an issue. I hope that in the future, by using 3D printers and synthetic tissue, we will dispense with both
Time figured out From Christian Stratowa Lee Smolin says that “we need a new starting point for explaining the directionality of time” (20 April, p 30). I’d like to point to the work of Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine and his book The End of Certainty, which is about unstable systems and irreversible processes. It describes how to extend both classical and quantum mechanics to include the irreversible flow of time. Vienna, Austria
Just relax From Dave Silkstone Thorsten Wirth describes his push-ups cure for hiccups (13 April, p 28), so I thought I’d add
Leaky universe From Peter Inkpen Andrew Pontzen highlights that we have not yet found any exotic particles, such as WIMPs, that can account for dark matter’s observed influence on ordinary matter in the universe (23 March, p 32). Maybe we are, quite literally, looking in the wrong place. The alternative cosmology of M-theory postulates the existence of multiple parallel universes, or “branes”, alongside our own. It also suggests that the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces can be explained by its ability to “leak” between these parallel universes. I suggest that what we observe as dark matter haloes enveloping clusters of galaxies might really be the result of the gravitational influence of counterpart structures in these parallel universes, leaking through into our own. Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK
Martian feast
this dilemma and the risk of an animal disease spreading to humans via an interspecies transplantation. Washington DC, US
propose to go huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ the indigenous wildlife? Or does it mean that dissent among the cooped-up crew may lead to one of them ending up on the menu? Loosley Row, Buckinghamshire, UK
From Nigel Henbest While I thoroughly approve of the first one-way astronauts to Mars being vegetarian (27 April, p 12), I’m intrigued by the suggestion that “meat and fish will be off the menu, at least at first”. Do the Mars One colonists
my method: I just relax the muscle that is causing the hiccup. I learned how to do this in the same way as I learned to control the muscle that wiggles my ears. Leeds, UK
Entangled thinking From Bruce Harris I was rereading an article on quantum theory (17 December 2011, p 37) while looking after my 8-year-old niece, Felicity. She asked me what I was reading and I said: “It’s about entanglement and spooky action at a distance. The thing I don’t understand is how scientists keep track of these two separate but entangled photons while sending them over long distances by different routes.” “Easy,” said Felicity, “they just paint one red and the other blue.” Can anyone else enlighten me as to how we keep track of entangled photons? Malabar, New South Wales, Australia
Catch me if you can From Stuart Leslie In your look at various aspects of the human body (16 March, p 32), you mention that humans are among the champions of longdistance running. However, I believe the real champion of mammalian endurance is the good old kangaroo. Due to the extraordinary energy efficiency of its hop, a big red kangaroo can travel at 30 kilometres per hour for up to 8 hours at a time and cover remarkable distances. Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia The editor writes: n Not so fast. Biologist David Carrier, who has studied the impact of human biomechanics and endurance on our ability to hunt, cites recorded examples of Indigenous Australians using long-distance pursuit to exhaust and catch kangaroos (Current Anthropology, vol 25, p 483)
Lost in translation From Geoffrey Withington Joop van Montfoort (27 April, p 35) is guilty of wishful thinking if he imagines that LOL (laughing out loud) stems from the Dutch word for fun lol. As it happens, the Dutch word u translates as “you” and the Dutch for “chicken” is kip, but then UKIP is a political party in the UK. If Brits had any understanding whatsoever of Dutch, I’d be well and truly amazed. Bridge, Kent, UK 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.
11 May 2013 | NewScientist | 31
can fit the huge range of problems it encounters. It is not a lagging horse on the same racecourse as physics, but a response to an entirely different set of problems. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK From Jeremy Holmes, School of Psychology, University of Exeter Craddock is right that academic psychiatry in the UK fails to capture the imagination of the public and young doctors. But his prescription – lots more neuroscience – won’t save the day. Psychiatry is inherently a marriage of art and science, and Craddock therefore needs to encompass the art of human relationships as well as the brain’s biochemistry if he is to see the progress he wants. Exeter, Devon, UK
No animals required From Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of AnimalsIn your editorial you ask whether society would accept the use of “humanised” animal organs for transplant surgery (20 April, p 3). As we continue to expand our knowledge of animals, using other species for such purposes becomes more, not less, of an issue. I hope that in the future, by using 3D printers and synthetic tissue, we will dispense with both
Time figured out From Christian Stratowa Lee Smolin says that “we need a new starting point for explaining the directionality of time” (20 April, p 30). I’d like to point to the work of Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine and his book The End of Certainty, which is about unstable systems and irreversible processes. It describes how to extend both classical and quantum mechanics to include the irreversible flow of time. Vienna, Austria
Just relax From Dave Silkstone Thorsten Wirth describes his push-ups cure for hiccups (13 April, p 28), so I thought I’d add
Leaky universe From Peter Inkpen Andrew Pontzen highlights that we have not yet found any exotic particles, such as WIMPs, that can account for dark matter’s observed influence on ordinary matter in the universe (23 March, p 32). Maybe we are, quite literally, looking in the wrong place. The alternative cosmology of M-theory postulates the existence of multiple parallel universes, or “branes”, alongside our own. It also suggests that the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces can be explained by its ability to “leak” between these parallel universes. I suggest that what we observe as dark matter haloes enveloping clusters of galaxies might really be the result of the gravitational influence of counterpart structures in these parallel universes, leaking through into our own. Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK
Martian feast
this dilemma and the risk of an animal disease spreading to humans via an interspecies transplantation. Washington DC, US
propose to go huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ the indigenous wildlife? Or does it mean that dissent among the cooped-up crew may lead to one of them ending up on the menu? Loosley Row, Buckinghamshire, UK
From Nigel Henbest While I thoroughly approve of the first one-way astronauts to Mars being vegetarian (27 April, p 12), I’m intrigued by the suggestion that “meat and fish will be off the menu, at least at first”. Do the Mars One colonists
my method: I just relax the muscle that is causing the hiccup. I learned how to do this in the same way as I learned to control the muscle that wiggles my ears. Leeds, UK
Entangled thinking From Bruce Harris I was rereading an article on quantum theory (17 December 2011, p 37) while looking after my 8-year-old niece, Felicity. She asked me what I was reading and I said: “It’s about entanglement and spooky action at a distance. The thing I don’t understand is how scientists keep track of these two separate but entangled photons while sending them over long distances by different routes.” “Easy,” said Felicity, “they just paint one red and the other blue.” Can anyone else enlighten me as to how we keep track of entangled photons? Malabar, New South Wales, Australia
Catch me if you can From Stuart Leslie In your look at various aspects of the human body (16 March, p 32), you mention that humans are among the champions of longdistance running. However, I believe the real champion of mammalian endurance is the good old kangaroo. Due to the extraordinary energy efficiency of its hop, a big red kangaroo can travel at 30 kilometres per hour for up to 8 hours at a time and cover remarkable distances. Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia The editor writes: n Not so fast. Biologist David Carrier, who has studied the impact of human biomechanics and endurance on our ability to hunt, cites recorded examples of Indigenous Australians using long-distance pursuit to exhaust and catch kangaroos (Current Anthropology, vol 25, p 483)
Lost in translation From Geoffrey Withington Joop van Montfoort (27 April, p 35) is guilty of wishful thinking if he imagines that LOL (laughing out loud) stems from the Dutch word for fun lol. As it happens, the Dutch word u translates as “you” and the Dutch for “chicken” is kip, but then UKIP is a political party in the UK. If Brits had any understanding whatsoever of Dutch, I’d be well and truly amazed. Bridge, Kent, UK 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.
11 May 2013 | NewScientist | 31