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11 January 2023
From Drennan Watson, Alford, Aberdeenshire, UK
Michael Marshall's interesting discussion on when human species started to use fire – particularly for cooking food – suggests an increasingly early date. Inevitably, the evolutionary advantages of cooking are raised, focusing on the fact that it significantly increases the digestibility of many foods( 31 December 2022, p 24 ). My long years in agriculture …
11 January 2023
From Ian Simmons, Southend, Essex, UK
Annalee Newitz highlights the grim year experienced by big tech, including in the blockchain-based cryptocurrency market. However, there is plenty to cheer about the blockchain, which is essentially a very efficient ledger. Even its critics admit the technology works well( 17/24 December 2022, p 31 ). What we are seeing now is the Perez cycle …
11 January 2023
From Christian Wolmar, London, UK
Matthew Sparkes correctly assesses the total failure of developing anything like a truly driverless car, yet he still feels compelled to end his piece on a relatively optimistic note( 17/24 December 2022, p 13 ). We have already had over a decade of broken promises, with endless vows that autonomous cars will be available to …
11 January 2023
From Dave Neale, Bedford, UK
It is really no surprise that the developers of self-driving cars have at last cottoned on to the difficulties in reaching their objective of total autonomy in all circumstances. It would have been far better for them to target the limited conditions of close-convoy driving on controlled highways such as UK motorways, with communication between …
11 January 2023
From Alex McDowell, London, UK
Your story on a biogel that could be used in body armour focuses on fending off supersonic bullets( 17/24 December 2022, p 13 ). I think it could do so much more. If used on tanks, it could protect against neutron bombs as well as armour-piercing rounds. Neutron bombs were proposed as a weapon to …
11 January 2023
From Greg Nuttgens, Porthcawl, Bridgend, UK
Your feature on animals that don't move much suggests that, in the case of urban foxes in the UK, this may partly be due to feeding by the public. A look at wildlife-oriented Facebook pages suggests that this practice is indeed widespread. Large-scale artificial feeding of much-loved wild animals like foxes and red kites is …
11 January 2023
From Geoff Harding, Sydney, Australia
I agree we should be far more cautious in unilaterally trying to communicate with aliens, on the grounds that they have apparently been far more circumspect in communicating with us( 17/24 December 2022, p 64 ). Arguably, the probability of intelligent life evolving elsewhere long before we did is high, but our most sensitive telescopes …
11 January 2023
From Martin van Raay, Culemborg, The Netherlands
Regarding Sue Cannon's idea of quick-change batteries to get electric vehicles "refuelled" rapidly: Renault looked into the use of interchangeable batteries for modern cars, but abandoned it, though the company now appears to be entertaining the idea again. Nio (another manufacturer) has plans to use swappable batteries( Letters, 17/24 December 2022 ). The problem with …
11 January 2023
From Mark Tapley, Woldingham, Surrey, UK
I very much enjoyed the article about cloud companies' storage of material on magnetic tape. However, the story of Google accidentally deleting emails from Gmail accounts and then restoring them from the magnetic tape archives made me think( 17/24 December 2022, p 66 ). What about that embarrassing photo of me with long hair, a …
11 January 2023
In our look at magnetic tape ( 17/24 December 2022, p 66 ), the 1970s IT storage system shown was a disc drive.
Issue no. 3421 published 14 January 2023
