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Weird ways
To join the debate, visit www.NewScientist.com/letters
For example, the next step in the evolution of mobile technology, LTE, will offer an efficiency 12 times as great as today’s technology. Alongside investment in connections from base stations to network, this will allow cellphone operators to serve customers with much faster data rates than today to stop bandwidth running out by the 2012 Olympics. Beyond this, the recently ratified 4G technology, LTE-Advanced, will use the spectrum up to 25 times as efficiently as today’s. That should take us to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In the long term, it is important to consider wider use of the spectrum. The mobile industry has about 10 per cent of the prime spectrum, between 400 megahertz and 5 gigahertz, and radar and the military have over 50 per cent. In the UK at least, maybe now is the time to consider government usage of spectrum as part of its wider spending review. However, because of the advantages of having very many devices built for common frequency allocations and the need to avoid interference, spectrum allocation in the UK needs to be harmonised with our European neighbours. London, UK The editor writes: n The peak spectral efficiency of LTE will bring big improvement to users whose mobile devices receive strong signals, but a for typical user, average spectral efficiency is a better measure. Simon Saunders of Real Wireless, a consultancy in Pulborough, West Sussex, UK, tells us that LTE will in practice only squeeze about 1.5 times as much data into a megahertz of spectrum, not 12 times as much.
Weird ways From Elizabeth Young The question “Who’s the oddball?” is not only fascinating but also politically significant (13 November, p 42). The WEIRD – western, educated, industrialised,
rich and democratic – people the article describes are behind a lot of western, particularly American, policy towards China: and a dangerous policy it is, too. WEIRD people, Laura Spinney tells us, “have more of a sense of existing as autonomous individuals than do people from East Asia, who are more likely to see themselves as inseparable components of a larger community”. The west’s highly vocal support for the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to human rights activist Liu Xiabo, defended by the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, in The New York Times on 23 October, was typically WEIRD. Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore put the eastern approach well, also in the NYT, on 12 November: “In the western political imagination, the march to progress is made by steadily weakening the state and enlarging individual freedom. In the Chinese political experience, the weakening of the Chinese state has inevitably led to chaos and enormous personal suffering… The past 30 years since Deng’s reforms began have been the best 30 years since the Opium war of 1842.” Many who see China through WEIRD glasses want to punish the country for not sharing our WEIRD views and doctrines, forgetting that these are just our particular formulation of human rights. London, UK
are known to affect “western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic” people. Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK
From Bob Gibson After reading your article on WEIRD people I felt compelled to return to the subject of bowerbirds and optical illusions (18 September, p 16 and 16 October, p 26). If cultural differences affect whether an optical illusion is perceivable by different peoples, it would be especially difficult to devise an experiment that could determine if non-human species – let alone bowerbirds – could respond to optical illusions that
animals are wastefully and often inhumanely culled. Perhaps meat from browsing animals has even more to offer than Zukerman anticipates. St Ives, Cornwall, UK
Eating Skippy From Michael Kellock Wendy Zukerman states that “kangaroo meat was not available in Australia for human consumption until 1980 – 20 years later than most countries it was exported to”. Not so. When I was at the University of Melbourne in the late 1950s, kangaroo casserole was available every Thursday in the student union eatery. It was a delightful dish, which I looked forward to each week with great anticipation. I guess that today’s uni students would be appalled at the thought. Foster, Victoria, Australia From Mattie Pochee It seems to me that all the arguments for kangaroo farming could equally well be applied to Australia’s camels. These perfectly adapted and healthy
which have not been evaluated (25 September, p 28). Unlike randomised trials, case studies were never intended to test a hypothesis and therefore cannot indicate that a particular treatment is effective. They belong to a completely different research strategy, an inductive strategy, which is exploratory and descriptive. Such strategies have a strong role to play in science, but they should be used at a much earlier stage than deductive strategies based on hypotheses. Inductive research informs us of possibilities, which need to be shaped into putative theories and then hypotheses before further testing. Charles Darwin used this form of research powerfully; these days, it is sometimes overlooked and often misunderstood. To understand the power of inductive research, it is worth remembering that it was a case study by W. G. McBride (The Lancet, vol 278, p 1358) which drew the attention of the medical profession to the possible risks of the drug thalidomide. Bristol, UK
Time travel test
Inductive research From Peter Gladwell Ian Roberts rightly highlights the misinterpretation of medical case studies that has encouraged some clinicians to use treatments
From Andy Biddulph This letter is a test of quantum time travel (20 November, p 34). I, in your past, am sending you, in my future, a message. When you print this, in my future, you will, by post-selection, be sending me, in your past, a message telling me what to type when I have finished my cup of coffee. PS: It works. Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, 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.
4 December 2010 | NewScientist | 29
For example, the next step in the evolution of mobile technology, LTE, will offer an efficiency 12 times as great as today’s technology. Alongside investment in connections from base stations to network, this will allow cellphone operators to serve customers with much faster data rates than today to stop bandwidth running out by the 2012 Olympics. Beyond this, the recently ratified 4G technology, LTE-Advanced, will use the spectrum up to 25 times as efficiently as today’s. That should take us to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In the long term, it is important to consider wider use of the spectrum. The mobile industry has about 10 per cent of the prime spectrum, between 400 megahertz and 5 gigahertz, and radar and the military have over 50 per cent. In the UK at least, maybe now is the time to consider government usage of spectrum as part of its wider spending review. However, because of the advantages of having very many devices built for common frequency allocations and the need to avoid interference, spectrum allocation in the UK needs to be harmonised with our European neighbours. London, UK The editor writes: n The peak spectral efficiency of LTE will bring big improvement to users whose mobile devices receive strong signals, but a for typical user, average spectral efficiency is a better measure. Simon Saunders of Real Wireless, a consultancy in Pulborough, West Sussex, UK, tells us that LTE will in practice only squeeze about 1.5 times as much data into a megahertz of spectrum, not 12 times as much.
Weird ways From Elizabeth Young The question “Who’s the oddball?” is not only fascinating but also politically significant (13 November, p 42). The WEIRD – western, educated, industrialised,
rich and democratic – people the article describes are behind a lot of western, particularly American, policy towards China: and a dangerous policy it is, too. WEIRD people, Laura Spinney tells us, “have more of a sense of existing as autonomous individuals than do people from East Asia, who are more likely to see themselves as inseparable components of a larger community”. The west’s highly vocal support for the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to human rights activist Liu Xiabo, defended by the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, in The New York Times on 23 October, was typically WEIRD. Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore put the eastern approach well, also in the NYT, on 12 November: “In the western political imagination, the march to progress is made by steadily weakening the state and enlarging individual freedom. In the Chinese political experience, the weakening of the Chinese state has inevitably led to chaos and enormous personal suffering… The past 30 years since Deng’s reforms began have been the best 30 years since the Opium war of 1842.” Many who see China through WEIRD glasses want to punish the country for not sharing our WEIRD views and doctrines, forgetting that these are just our particular formulation of human rights. London, UK
are known to affect “western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic” people. Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK
From Bob Gibson After reading your article on WEIRD people I felt compelled to return to the subject of bowerbirds and optical illusions (18 September, p 16 and 16 October, p 26). If cultural differences affect whether an optical illusion is perceivable by different peoples, it would be especially difficult to devise an experiment that could determine if non-human species – let alone bowerbirds – could respond to optical illusions that
animals are wastefully and often inhumanely culled. Perhaps meat from browsing animals has even more to offer than Zukerman anticipates. St Ives, Cornwall, UK
Eating Skippy From Michael Kellock Wendy Zukerman states that “kangaroo meat was not available in Australia for human consumption until 1980 – 20 years later than most countries it was exported to”. Not so. When I was at the University of Melbourne in the late 1950s, kangaroo casserole was available every Thursday in the student union eatery. It was a delightful dish, which I looked forward to each week with great anticipation. I guess that today’s uni students would be appalled at the thought. Foster, Victoria, Australia From Mattie Pochee It seems to me that all the arguments for kangaroo farming could equally well be applied to Australia’s camels. These perfectly adapted and healthy
which have not been evaluated (25 September, p 28). Unlike randomised trials, case studies were never intended to test a hypothesis and therefore cannot indicate that a particular treatment is effective. They belong to a completely different research strategy, an inductive strategy, which is exploratory and descriptive. Such strategies have a strong role to play in science, but they should be used at a much earlier stage than deductive strategies based on hypotheses. Inductive research informs us of possibilities, which need to be shaped into putative theories and then hypotheses before further testing. Charles Darwin used this form of research powerfully; these days, it is sometimes overlooked and often misunderstood. To understand the power of inductive research, it is worth remembering that it was a case study by W. G. McBride (The Lancet, vol 278, p 1358) which drew the attention of the medical profession to the possible risks of the drug thalidomide. Bristol, UK
Time travel test
Inductive research From Peter Gladwell Ian Roberts rightly highlights the misinterpretation of medical case studies that has encouraged some clinicians to use treatments
From Andy Biddulph This letter is a test of quantum time travel (20 November, p 34). I, in your past, am sending you, in my future, a message. When you print this, in my future, you will, by post-selection, be sending me, in your past, a message telling me what to type when I have finished my cup of coffee. PS: It works. Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, 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.
4 December 2010 | NewScientist | 29