51¶¯Âþ

Sofia Quaglia's article on the oriental hornet's liking for alcohol could explain why the commonest trap in Portugal for the Asian hornet works so well. It may also enable an immediate and easy measure to protect bees if these predators become established elsewhere ( 2 November, p 18 ). This trap uses an empty plastic …

Chris Sherwood's excellent piece on animal communication, "If only they could talk", reminded me of an essay I wrote for 51¶¯Âþ more than 30 years ago ( 21 May 1994 ) headlined "Why can't we talk to the animals?". Even way back then, we and other animals could "talk" with one another using visual …

While it would be fascinating to decode the messages that lie behind a cat's purr, a dog's bark or the clucking of a rather overfed chicken, I think we have to be aware of our strong instinct to attribute human qualities to these creatures. While they undoubtedly display intelligence, it is expressed in a way …

Your articles on nutrition brought several strands of information together nicely, although, as with previous round-ups of this, it seems to sum up as "more fibre, less red meat and sugar, more variety" ( 2 November, p 32 ). One theme that I would like to add is that those of us in affluent societies …

Good to hear that the largest-known prime number has been found – but at what cost in terms of energy consumption? Rather than rewarding the finder with $3000, perhaps that money would be better spent on carbon offsetting ( 2 November, p 19 ).

I agree with Daniele Oriti that "we have to embrace the fact that we make reality", and note readers' responses. We need to keep in mind that relativity and quantum physics have comprehensively undermined our classical, or Newtonian, view of reality ( 12 October, p 40 , and Letters, 2 November ). For instance, we …

Your story on how the Neanderthals really died amid the rise of Homo sapiens , based on regional occupation, sounds like a perpetual hunt/war between the two groups. It would have started with Neanderthals hunting invasive "weak" humans until our species got smarter and tried to eliminate them ( 12 October, p 36 ). Those …

Despite its name, Barnard's star isn't in Barnard's galaxy ( 26 October, p 30 ). A new type of energy storage device that could be used on Mars is a supercapacitor ( 2 November, p 12 ). In our look at precision nutrition, we misattributed a quote to Regan Bailey ( 2 November, p 38 …

Neither your article on the impact of food production on the planet nor the editorial that accompanied it mentions the health and maintenance of the largest biome bar the ocean: soil. It is unlikely that wheat yields could increase by 18 per cent by 2100 if farmers keep doing what they are doing unless you …

For most of my life, my brain rendered the moon as a flat disc or crescent in the diamond-studded canvas of the night sky. However, I discovered that if I think of the moon as spherical while I look at it, it pops out that way. Instead of a flat object, I see it for …