17 August 2019 | New Scientist | 27Until, that is, the discovery and
use of fire to keep predators away,
allowing babies to babble with
impunity. So language wouldn’t
have arisen before we had fire.
Further, if language arose in
a cohort of young children, its
members would have been able
to communicate at a much more
complex level with each other
than with the rest of the group. It
seems reasonable to suppose that
they would pair with each other,
not with non-speakers. That could
produce a genetic bottleneck and a
new species.
Because the wind is low
it blows that argument
20 July, p 10
From Perry Bebbington,
Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, UK
You say each proposed wind farm
hub in the North Sea will power up
to 12 million UK homes. You don’t
mention how many days of the
year there is enough wind for it
to power that number, nor how
much fuel will be consumed by
power stations standing by to
take over when the wind drops.
We’re taking the time
for a number of things
6 July, p 32
From Ian Dunbar,
Warrington, Cheshire, UK
Daniel Cossins says the search
for answers to the mysteries
of time “takes us into the
strange borderlands between
neuroscience and physics”. He
should include philosophy in that
map. The philosopher Peter Geach
argued in Mental Acts for the
necessity of philosophy in such
cases, saying that no experiment
can either justify or straighten
out a confusion of thought: “if we
are in a muddle when we design
an experiment, it is only to be
expected that we should ask
Nature cross questions and she
return crooked answers”.
A simple analysis of the
different uses of the word “time”
reveals ambiguities. When we
use it, for example, to refer to the
quantity measured in seconds,
we are talking about two related
but distinct quantities: lapse and
duration. Unless we use the tools
of analytic philosophy to sort out
such matters, our efforts to solve
these difficult problems are
doomed to be mired in muddle.From Robert Deuchar, Great
Horwood, Buckinghamshire, UK
When a ball bounces, it converts
kinetic energy to heat energy by
deformation, so each bounce is
lower than the one before. The
laws of physics are generally
reversible in time, but, as Cossins
discusses, those involving heat,
or thermodynamics, are not.
Heat is an “emergent” thing:
a phenomenon that appears only
when we look at a minimum
number of particles, so only at
a minimum size. As a result,
physicists such as Carlo Rovelli
speculate that time may not exist
below a minimum scale of size.
On this basis, time isn’t an
illusion at our level, more like
an approximation. We should
be wary of assuming that what
applies at our scale of size applies
at all scales.Constant cussed changes
in a cosmic constant
20 July, p 34
From Andrew Taubman,
Sydney, Australia
Anil Ananthaswamy reports that
two different ways of measuring
the present-day expansion of the
universe produce different values
of the Hubble constant. This
brings to mind the principle that
measurement changes the
phenomenon observed at the
quantum scale.
The current mess of string
theory suggests this may be
happening on a cosmic scale.
Every time we approach an
explanation, the universeWant to get in touch?
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newscientist.com/lettersconfounds us with another
inexplicable twist. Some entities
just don’t like being understood!Workplace surveillance
for you and you too
6 July, p 9
From Ben Haller,
Ithaca, New York, US
You report Andrew Campbell and
his colleagues developing a system
for employers to snoop on staff,
including when they were at their
desk and details about their sleep,
heart rate and stress levels.
Their algorithm – with an
accuracy characterised as “still
quite low” – classifies employees
as “higher” or “lower” performing.
Since the scientists are apparently
comfortable with this, I assume
they have subjected themselves to
it. And since their work is funded
by the US government, I look
forward to all data on their
performance being posted online
for taxpayers to peruse. We can
then classify each as “higher” or
“lower” performing and make their
grant renewal conditional upon
those metrics. What’s sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander.An appeal for analogue
moon computer archives
13 July, p 36
From Rod Cripps,
Melbourne, Australia
I love all your articles about
the 1969 moon landing. I was
a close observer at that time at
Electronic Associates, a company
that helped it happen.
Digital computers of that time
weren’t fast enough to do the
critical calculations determining
the time to ignite the engines and
the duration of this ignition for
the return flight from the moon.
Analogue and analogue/digital
hybrid computers were up to
100 million times faster, althoughwith limited accuracy. Now many
of the mathematical techniques
used in these hybrid computers
are in danger of being lost.
I ask all with information on
the programs, techniques or
equipment used, or knowledge
of surviving analogue computer
systems, to contact me, through
New Scientist.New Zealand had its own
version of a giant ostrich
6 July, p 17
From Brian Collins,
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
I read with great interest that
Europe once had its own version
of a giant ostrich. I treasure a book
given to me by Alice Margaret
Leaker, the granddaughter of Alice
McKenzie. She recalled being the
last person on our planet to see a
live moa, under a flax bush in 1888
when she was about 7 years old.Communicate credit for
this film’s facts, please
13 July, p 30
From Rachel Feilden,
Tellisford, Somerset, UK
Simon Ings observes that The
Hummingbird Project is scripted
and filmed like a true-life story, and
asks who would make up a thriller
about high-frequency trading
infrastructures. He says the film
springs entirely from the head of
writer-director Kim Nguyen.
Has Nguyen not read Flash Boys:
A Wall Street revolt? In this, in 2014,
Michael Lewis showed us multiple
facets of high-frequency trading,
opening with plans to install
optical fibre in as straight a line as
possible between New York/New
Jersey and Chicago. Ings also
recommends The Big Short – the
film of another book by Lewis. The
person who so elegantly brought
these factual accounts to light
deserves credit. ❚For the Record
❚ Mixed messages: one air food mile
is the equivalent of over 75 food
shipping miles (3 August, p 24).