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Palestinians: of military operations, of the disorganisation of life caused by checkpoints, house demolitions and so on. But Lankford sees only the depression, he doesn’t address its causes. He cites the West Bank barrier as the one strategy against suicide bombers that can be called a success. This legitimises the further oppression of Palestinians by the very state whose policies have generated resistance, including suicide bombing, and which damage psychological well-being. London, UK
Cool sunrise From Subramaniam Divakaran Articles on artificial day and night helping to maintain the quality of picked vegetables (29 June, p 17) and UV light keeping fruit mould-free (15 June, p 23) set me thinking. Domestic fridges could be fitted with LEDs of the right wavelength to maintain circadian rhythm, and a UV light in a fridge drawer could keep fruits mould-free. Euless, Texas, US
You can’t miss From Mike Bown We have had the fly-in-the-urinal “nudge” (22 June, p 32) and the historic use of a bee (13 July, p 33) to influence men’s aim for the better. In Slovenia I discovered a urinal with a tiny set of soccer goalposts and a ball suspended
by a thread from the crossbar – irresistible! Dunedin, New Zealand From Brian Smith Does this count as a nudge? A bar in Berlin has a sign proclaiming that “the man who picks the fagends out of the urinals also puts the ice in the drinks”. Berlin, Germany
as if there will be no end? If I spend all my time moving, as suggested, will I also find time to create something of lasting value? Shakespeare’s sonnet number 74 says it all: “But be contented when that fell arrest / Without all bail shall carry me away, / My life hath in this line some interest, / Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.” Bath, Somerset, UK
Why frack? From Ted Watson Fracking technology has developed effective and accurate horizontal drilling to exploit fossil fuels deep underground (8 June, p 7). This is precisely the technology that would allow the exploitation of clean, sustainable geothermal energy. There is an almost unlimited supply of this in many places; why not develop it? Brighton, East Sussex, UK
Big questions Doug Fenna In his letter, Stephen Rowe is right to say that we need to understand gravity better rather than invent dark energy to account for the accelerating expansion of the universe (15 June, p 33). We know that quantum theory is accurate over atomic scales. The assumption that gravitational forces are the same at intergalactic scales as they are within our solar system is equivalent to assuming that quantum theory gives a good description of the behaviour of rice grains and snooker balls. Clearly it doesn’t, and maybe gravity has a similar limitation of scale. Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK
From Tim Jackson Using the figures in your article, I estimate that my decades-long subscription to New Scientist has shortened my life by about a month. Perhaps you should put a health warning on the cover. Rossendale, Lancashire, UK
One man’s comma… From Rachel Cave Hugh Lawton and Marc SmithEvans may unwittingly be indulging in cultural imperialism when talking about download progress figures of “4,100%” and “9,800%” for MacKeeper software (Feedback, 22 June). Where someone in the UK or US sees a thousands separator, a few hundred million in mainland Europe see a decimal point. Galway, Ireland
Perpetual motion
Ancient mystery
From Chrissy Philp Regarding the health costs of excessive sitting (29 June, p 44), what’s this obsession with living
From Gwydion Williams You mention the possibility that five other hominins co-existed in Africa at the same time as Homo
habilis, each with different human-like features (13 July, p 34). Is it also possible these hominins were close enough to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, leading to a number of them being our ancestors, rather than just one? Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK
Fact and fiction From Cary Welling Your readers might enjoy knowing that the Rashomon software, which syncs video of street protests from multiple sources (29 June, p 22), is almost certainly named after a 1950 Japanese cinematic masterpiece by director Akira Kurosawa. According to Christoph Koettl of Amnesty International, the software will produce a “comprehensive view” of a situation that “could be very, very helpful in our investigations”. In a comparable manner, Kurosawa’s Rashomon retells the story of a crime by stitching together different accounts. Stromness, Orkney Islands, UK
For the record n We got nuclear geophysicist Rob de Meijer’s academic affiliation wrong in our look at a new theory of how the moon formed (6 July, p 30). His correct place of work is the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa n It’s not the end of the world, but Feedback really should have referred to the last book of the Bible as Revelation (13 July) 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.
27 July 2013 | NewScientist | 33
Palestinians: of military operations, of the disorganisation of life caused by checkpoints, house demolitions and so on. But Lankford sees only the depression, he doesn’t address its causes. He cites the West Bank barrier as the one strategy against suicide bombers that can be called a success. This legitimises the further oppression of Palestinians by the very state whose policies have generated resistance, including suicide bombing, and which damage psychological well-being. London, UK
Cool sunrise From Subramaniam Divakaran Articles on artificial day and night helping to maintain the quality of picked vegetables (29 June, p 17) and UV light keeping fruit mould-free (15 June, p 23) set me thinking. Domestic fridges could be fitted with LEDs of the right wavelength to maintain circadian rhythm, and a UV light in a fridge drawer could keep fruits mould-free. Euless, Texas, US
You can’t miss From Mike Bown We have had the fly-in-the-urinal “nudge” (22 June, p 32) and the historic use of a bee (13 July, p 33) to influence men’s aim for the better. In Slovenia I discovered a urinal with a tiny set of soccer goalposts and a ball suspended
by a thread from the crossbar – irresistible! Dunedin, New Zealand From Brian Smith Does this count as a nudge? A bar in Berlin has a sign proclaiming that “the man who picks the fagends out of the urinals also puts the ice in the drinks”. Berlin, Germany
as if there will be no end? If I spend all my time moving, as suggested, will I also find time to create something of lasting value? Shakespeare’s sonnet number 74 says it all: “But be contented when that fell arrest / Without all bail shall carry me away, / My life hath in this line some interest, / Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.” Bath, Somerset, UK
Why frack? From Ted Watson Fracking technology has developed effective and accurate horizontal drilling to exploit fossil fuels deep underground (8 June, p 7). This is precisely the technology that would allow the exploitation of clean, sustainable geothermal energy. There is an almost unlimited supply of this in many places; why not develop it? Brighton, East Sussex, UK
Big questions Doug Fenna In his letter, Stephen Rowe is right to say that we need to understand gravity better rather than invent dark energy to account for the accelerating expansion of the universe (15 June, p 33). We know that quantum theory is accurate over atomic scales. The assumption that gravitational forces are the same at intergalactic scales as they are within our solar system is equivalent to assuming that quantum theory gives a good description of the behaviour of rice grains and snooker balls. Clearly it doesn’t, and maybe gravity has a similar limitation of scale. Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK
From Tim Jackson Using the figures in your article, I estimate that my decades-long subscription to New Scientist has shortened my life by about a month. Perhaps you should put a health warning on the cover. Rossendale, Lancashire, UK
One man’s comma… From Rachel Cave Hugh Lawton and Marc SmithEvans may unwittingly be indulging in cultural imperialism when talking about download progress figures of “4,100%” and “9,800%” for MacKeeper software (Feedback, 22 June). Where someone in the UK or US sees a thousands separator, a few hundred million in mainland Europe see a decimal point. Galway, Ireland
Perpetual motion
Ancient mystery
From Chrissy Philp Regarding the health costs of excessive sitting (29 June, p 44), what’s this obsession with living
From Gwydion Williams You mention the possibility that five other hominins co-existed in Africa at the same time as Homo
habilis, each with different human-like features (13 July, p 34). Is it also possible these hominins were close enough to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, leading to a number of them being our ancestors, rather than just one? Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK
Fact and fiction From Cary Welling Your readers might enjoy knowing that the Rashomon software, which syncs video of street protests from multiple sources (29 June, p 22), is almost certainly named after a 1950 Japanese cinematic masterpiece by director Akira Kurosawa. According to Christoph Koettl of Amnesty International, the software will produce a “comprehensive view” of a situation that “could be very, very helpful in our investigations”. In a comparable manner, Kurosawa’s Rashomon retells the story of a crime by stitching together different accounts. Stromness, Orkney Islands, UK
For the record n We got nuclear geophysicist Rob de Meijer’s academic affiliation wrong in our look at a new theory of how the moon formed (6 July, p 30). His correct place of work is the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa n It’s not the end of the world, but Feedback really should have referred to the last book of the Bible as Revelation (13 July) 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.
27 July 2013 | NewScientist | 33