ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ

I read Graham Lawton's article on ageism with a degree of sadness ( 4 April, p 19 ). Yes, younger people will want to take over an older person's job because they want to get on in the world. That's human nature. But you still need a job, of course. I worked for many years …

As someone with total aphantasia, I found Shayla Love's article "Think of an apple" to be of great interest. I found out that other people could actually picture things in their minds only when talking to my wife some 10 years ago ( 11 April, p 36 ). She really struggled to believe that I …

Regarding negative attitudes towards ageing, even though I have a heart health condition, I hardly ever think of myself as old. I'm 64, but even before I was 28, I always had that specific age in my mind, and so I routinely think of myself as being 28 years old ( 4 April, p 19 …

In his interview, Michael Pollan says that plants have about 20 senses and "e only have five or six". That is a considerable underestimate. In addition to the traditional five senses, there are multiple senses falling under the general heading of "interoception", including senses of heart rate, distension of various organs such as bladder and …

The suggestion that switching from large to smaller prey drove the increase in brain size of early humans raises an obvious question. How did smaller-brained humans with the stone tools described manage to kill "massive plant-eating prey"? An animal is hardly likely to stand still and wait to be axed or clubbed to death at …

Referring to mentions of time in recent editions of New Scientist , I would like to offer an opinion. The spatial dimensions of north, south, east and west define an object in instant space but, as virtually all matter is in constant relative motion, there is a need to measure change between events caused by …

Stone Age seafarers had a good understanding of local conditions, wind directions and the local geography, without having the use of compasses. I would suggest that although it would have been difficult to find Malta from Italy, it would have been much easier to find Italy from Malta. It required only one sailor with sufficient …

It is not surprising that the asteroid Ryugu, among others, possesses the nucleobases that are core components of nucleic acids. I am reminded that the Murchison meteorite, impacting Australia in 1969, was replete with organic compounds, including a cache of amino acids and some nucleobases also found in terrestrial life ( 28 March, p 15 …

With a number of jurisdictions proposing social media bans on young people, may a retired secondary school principal offer a comment? Don't announce a regulation until an effective means of enforcement is in place. Most importantly, never underestimate the ingenuity of teenagers ( Letters, 11 April ).

The children pictured are playing chess (25 April, p 32)