Letters archive

For decades, scientists searched for a bright line separating human culture from "mere" animal behaviour. The more evidence we get, the fainter that line becomes. When we insist on judging every other species against the single yardstick of human society, we reveal more about our biases than we do about other animals( 5 April, p …

Several readers suggest coining a new name for autism in girls and women, given its differences to autism in boys and men( Letters, 3 May ). May I suggest an old one: Sukhareva's syndrome? Grunya Sukhareva's groundbreaking work on autism took place nearly 20 years before Hans Asperger's oft-cited work, and in the mid 1920s, …

You raise concerns over whether UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is advised by artificial intelligence, as the government uses it to summarise documents and possibly to prepare draft briefings. Its excuse for denying your requests to tell us more – that reviewing and summarising over 13,000 prompts used to elicit AI outputs was impractical – …

Your look at plans for radio telescopes and more on the far side of the moon, shielded from terrestrial electromagnetic clutter, was exciting. However, well before we commit resources to these endeavours, another short-term option is feasible. A radio telescope version of the James Webb Space Telescope, set in a synchronous lunar orbit over the …

Excellent article on how every generation thinks they are smarter than the one before. I agree with all this, but was given pause for thought when I read a recent post pointing out that in 1925, car owners' manuals advised you how to adjust the engine's valves. In 2025, they make no mention of valves …

Bethan Ackerley asked for a climate change TV drama that can make a big impact. There may not be one, but there is Jonathan Dove's new opera, Uprising , inspired by Greta Thunberg's story. It has a tremendous impact that leaves many audiences and quite a few community chorus members crying at the end, including …

Never overlook human urine's wonderful surfactant properties – the Romans certainly didn't when it came to doing their laundry. From my experiments, any textiles steeped at ambient temperature in a solution of fresh urine and rainwater (which is naturally soft) are cleaned amazingly well. After a cold rinse cycle, I couldn't detect any residual odour …

I agree with Paul Holt on the need to control for factors affecting dementia rates other than school leaving age before and after 1972. But I would be cautious before assuming that the older cohort who were born and brought up during rationing, and their mothers, were more likely to be malnourished. Many studies suggest …

Last year, Matt Strassler explained that particles are really a kind of wave ( 21 September 2024, p 32 ). Now, Celso Villas-Boas says that no, they are really just particles after all( 3 May, p 8 ). Arguments are traditionally settled with a duel. Electron guns at 20 paces? Or a more modern cage …

I learned from you that dark chocolate is high in fibre. That fact by itself has made this year's subscription worth the money. I salute you, Graham Lawton, with a square of 70 per cent cacao( 12 April, p 34 ).