- Email: [email protected]
Too little poetry
SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR LETTERS ON: ● Alcohol hurts for a reason ● More body electric
haematocrit (concentration of red blood cells) before racing. Those with a haematocrit greater than 50 per cent are prevented from competing regardless of the cause, be it blood doping or innocent pre-testing dehydration, which elevates a naturally high haematocrit. This procedure takes up the bulk of the UCI’s rules on “sporting safety and conditions”, suggesting that the organisation does have the health and safety of its charges in mind. Portland, Oregon, US
Pain and pity From Patricia Shannon Henry Greely seems to imply that the prospect of ending human suffering through biological enhancement is unlikely to be a bad thing (5 August, p 19). I observe that people are usually unable to empathise with problems they have not themselves experienced. People who have not suffered
not mean animals are too, since cooperation is often in their interest (19 August, p 20). I must take issue, however, with his definition of evolution as being “the generation of complexity through mutation and selection”. Evolution just means change. Organisms are as likely to become less complex, if it helps their survival, as they are to become more complex: consider parasites and viruses. Given enough time, some animals will become more complex through chance, but the vast majority will not. Sometimes you get movement in a particular direction, like running faster, but this does not necessarily entail more complexity. Evolution has no foresight, it is not heading anywhere and it is not tied up with the Victorian notion of “progress”. It is not a ladder leading up to humans at the top, it is a bush. Whatever works survives. That’s all there is to it. Folkestone, Kent, UK
The selfish meme
would likely be even less inhibited about inflicting suffering on other creatures, human or otherwise. Of course, for some, too much suffering deadens empathy and causes them to delight in tormenting others. As usual, a balance is needed. Atlanta, Georgia, US
Evolved simplicity From Steve Welch The letter from John Hind was very good in pointing out that just because genes are “selfish” does www.newscientist.com
From Philip Stewart Ian Gilbert no doubt has a balanced view of the overall shape of Richard Dawkins’s thinking (19 August, p 20). But Elaine Morgan is still right to deplore the impact of The Selfish Gene on “millions of non-academic readers”. Hardly any have read his more scientific work, and many who have not read even that one book have concluded that it has been “scientifically proven” that “we are born selfish”, as Dawkins says in his first chapter, confusing his technical sense of the word “selfish” and its everyday meaning. Coming in 1976, when the world was about to plunge into three decades of unbridled market economics, his celebrated book can be said to have helped to prepare the intellectual ground in which the growing inequalities of the last 30 years could take root. Boars Hill, Oxfordshire, UK
Too little poetry From Wally Sewell In discussing the links between poetry and science, Simon Armitage concludes that what opened the bomb hatch over Hiroshima was “a poetic nightmare vision of hellfire” (26 August, p 20). I would suggest it was the absence of such a vision that allowed it to be opened; it was only after reports of the carnage came back that Robert Oppenheimer and the majority of his team realised they had “blood on their hands” and discontinued work on the project. London, UK
Very small Raquel From Stephanie Clarke Feedback’s item about the headline “What do Raquel Welch and quantum physics have in common?” puzzled me too (19 August). I think the answer may be that she was in Fantastic Voyage (1966), where apparently (I have never seen it) a surgical team is miniaturised and inserted into a dying man. I suppose this fits with the references to the Virtual Microscopy Centre and the Nanoscale Interfaces Centre at the University of Leicester. Maybe that’s one way they can get more pupils studying science. Cambridge, UK
A bit of what you hate… From David Pritchard I agree with Richard SimpsonBirks that allergies can be acquired late in life (5 August, p 21). When my 6-year-old stepdaughter required an eardrum graft following a school bus accident, the surgeon tested her for allergies to various items that would have prevented the graft being successful. At the same time he tested my wife and me. All three of us were to varying degrees allergic to different foods, and the surgeon explained that
allergies could be acquired in later life if one suffered a prolonged infection. The immune system may then develop an inability to distinguish between the offending virus and some protein molecules in foods.
Naturally, when you feel ill for a long period you tend to cosset yourself and eat your favourite foods. The implication of the surgeon’s explanation is that when sick you should eat only foods you don’t like. Geraldton, Washington, US
For the record ● In the 12 August issue we stated that crinoids, or sea lilies, appeared 300 million years ago and pre-dated fish (p 49). Both have actually been around for a lot longer than that, coexisting in the Ordovician period between 490 and 443 million years ago, with the first fish possibly coming earlier than crinoids. Also, the subclass of crinoids with the ability to move appeared 200 million years ago, not a mere 200,000 years ago. ● Hone Harawira is a member of the New Zealand parliament for the Maori Party, not a “Maori minister” as we described him (19 August, p 12). 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 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.
9 September 2006 | NewScientist | 23
haematocrit (concentration of red blood cells) before racing. Those with a haematocrit greater than 50 per cent are prevented from competing regardless of the cause, be it blood doping or innocent pre-testing dehydration, which elevates a naturally high haematocrit. This procedure takes up the bulk of the UCI’s rules on “sporting safety and conditions”, suggesting that the organisation does have the health and safety of its charges in mind. Portland, Oregon, US
Pain and pity From Patricia Shannon Henry Greely seems to imply that the prospect of ending human suffering through biological enhancement is unlikely to be a bad thing (5 August, p 19). I observe that people are usually unable to empathise with problems they have not themselves experienced. People who have not suffered
not mean animals are too, since cooperation is often in their interest (19 August, p 20). I must take issue, however, with his definition of evolution as being “the generation of complexity through mutation and selection”. Evolution just means change. Organisms are as likely to become less complex, if it helps their survival, as they are to become more complex: consider parasites and viruses. Given enough time, some animals will become more complex through chance, but the vast majority will not. Sometimes you get movement in a particular direction, like running faster, but this does not necessarily entail more complexity. Evolution has no foresight, it is not heading anywhere and it is not tied up with the Victorian notion of “progress”. It is not a ladder leading up to humans at the top, it is a bush. Whatever works survives. That’s all there is to it. Folkestone, Kent, UK
The selfish meme
would likely be even less inhibited about inflicting suffering on other creatures, human or otherwise. Of course, for some, too much suffering deadens empathy and causes them to delight in tormenting others. As usual, a balance is needed. Atlanta, Georgia, US
Evolved simplicity From Steve Welch The letter from John Hind was very good in pointing out that just because genes are “selfish” does www.newscientist.com
From Philip Stewart Ian Gilbert no doubt has a balanced view of the overall shape of Richard Dawkins’s thinking (19 August, p 20). But Elaine Morgan is still right to deplore the impact of The Selfish Gene on “millions of non-academic readers”. Hardly any have read his more scientific work, and many who have not read even that one book have concluded that it has been “scientifically proven” that “we are born selfish”, as Dawkins says in his first chapter, confusing his technical sense of the word “selfish” and its everyday meaning. Coming in 1976, when the world was about to plunge into three decades of unbridled market economics, his celebrated book can be said to have helped to prepare the intellectual ground in which the growing inequalities of the last 30 years could take root. Boars Hill, Oxfordshire, UK
Too little poetry From Wally Sewell In discussing the links between poetry and science, Simon Armitage concludes that what opened the bomb hatch over Hiroshima was “a poetic nightmare vision of hellfire” (26 August, p 20). I would suggest it was the absence of such a vision that allowed it to be opened; it was only after reports of the carnage came back that Robert Oppenheimer and the majority of his team realised they had “blood on their hands” and discontinued work on the project. London, UK
Very small Raquel From Stephanie Clarke Feedback’s item about the headline “What do Raquel Welch and quantum physics have in common?” puzzled me too (19 August). I think the answer may be that she was in Fantastic Voyage (1966), where apparently (I have never seen it) a surgical team is miniaturised and inserted into a dying man. I suppose this fits with the references to the Virtual Microscopy Centre and the Nanoscale Interfaces Centre at the University of Leicester. Maybe that’s one way they can get more pupils studying science. Cambridge, UK
A bit of what you hate… From David Pritchard I agree with Richard SimpsonBirks that allergies can be acquired late in life (5 August, p 21). When my 6-year-old stepdaughter required an eardrum graft following a school bus accident, the surgeon tested her for allergies to various items that would have prevented the graft being successful. At the same time he tested my wife and me. All three of us were to varying degrees allergic to different foods, and the surgeon explained that
allergies could be acquired in later life if one suffered a prolonged infection. The immune system may then develop an inability to distinguish between the offending virus and some protein molecules in foods.
Naturally, when you feel ill for a long period you tend to cosset yourself and eat your favourite foods. The implication of the surgeon’s explanation is that when sick you should eat only foods you don’t like. Geraldton, Washington, US
For the record ● In the 12 August issue we stated that crinoids, or sea lilies, appeared 300 million years ago and pre-dated fish (p 49). Both have actually been around for a lot longer than that, coexisting in the Ordovician period between 490 and 443 million years ago, with the first fish possibly coming earlier than crinoids. Also, the subclass of crinoids with the ability to move appeared 200 million years ago, not a mere 200,000 years ago. ● Hone Harawira is a member of the New Zealand parliament for the Maori Party, not a “Maori minister” as we described him (19 August, p 12). 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 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.
9 September 2006 | NewScientist | 23