8 June 2019 | New Scientist | 27to almost zero between 6 and
7 May, with consumption at
about 25 gigawatts and rising.
Where storage is shown on the
graph as contributing to supply,
it is only ever a tiny fraction and
nowhere near enough to make
up for frequent near-total loss
of wind and solar generation.
If you live long then
who prospers?
27 April, p 26
From Ray Lovett,
Budleigh Salterton, Devon, UK
Your article on “living younger”
greets the probable arrival of
drugs to stay fitter in later life as
a win for everyone. With any new
technology, it is wise to consider
possible outcomes that may not
be a benefit to society.
One passage caught my eye.
“Companies are popping up
everywhere. Everyone
understands senolytics is a gold
mine,” says one CEO. It would be a
gold mine because large numbers
of healthy people would continue
to use the drugs for decades.
Consider two possible
marketing strategies. One is to aim
to spread the benefits to everyone
in the world, by supplying the
drugs at low prices that poorer
people or government health
services can afford. The whole
world could benefit. The
alternative strategy is to target
wealthier members of society,
who are probably willing to pay
high prices for the perceived
benefits, and so to charge as
high a price as possible.
What effect would the
second strategy have on society?
Wealthier people could extend
their maximum earning period,
increasing their wealth and
passing it on to their descendants.
People who can’t afford the drugs
wouldn’t get this advantage.
Even worse, they would have
to compete against “younger”
people in the later years of their
shorter working life. We live in
a time of increasing inequality.
I can’t see how the second
strategy would reduce this.
Which marketing strategy is
more likely to be implemented,
given that private companies’
foremost priority is to maximise
profit? We have plenty of evidence
from tobacco and fossil fuel firms
that morality counts for little
against profitability.Possible ID for mini
mystery bacteria
13 April, p 28
From Graham Hodgson,
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK
You report “a recently discovered
group of ultra small bacteria”. One
of my tutors at the University of
Birmingham, UK, in the mid-60s
was Phyllis Pease, who was
researching pleuropneumonia-
like organisms, spheroplasts
and L-forms, which later
became known as cell wall-
deficient organisms.
These are typically parasitic,
with reduced genomes and, in the
cases studied by Pease, were found
within mammalian blood cells.
They also readily absorbed
fragments of host DNA into their
genome. The image you publish
of an ultra small bacterium bears
all of the hallmarks of a
bacterial L-form.Supporting a boycott of
Burmese blood amber
4 May, p 38
From David Grimaldi,
New York, US
Graham Lawton unveils a
monstrous situation surrounding
the mining and sale of amber
in Myanmar. If amber sales are
funding bloodshed there, then a
strict boycott of Burmese amber
is absolutely necessary.If you make tools, you
know the first words
4 May, p 34
From John Cleveland,
Bloomington, Indiana, US
I read your article on the origins
of language in music, mime and
mimicry with interest. Those of us
who make things with our handsknow the origins of tool-making
language and terminology. The
first words would have been
“Aaargh”, then “F@#k”! Some
things never change.Will a space-wide web
obstruct other launches?
4 May, p 44
From Martin Gregorie,
Harlow, Essex, UK
You describe proposals for a
space-wide web and mention
the problem of space junk in orbit.
But won’t adding more than
15,000 satellites to low Earth orbit,
used in crewed space flight and
traversed by other launches, cause
problems by making the selection
of safe launch windows much
more difficult?
As for the 4000 satellites in
the Amazon, Telesat and OneWeb
proposals, these constellations
would be flying too high to be
much affected by atmospheric
drag. So even if only 1 per cent
fail to de-orbit, they will add
undesirable debris in more or
less permanent orbits.The editor writes:
Satellites have predictable orbits
and launches can be timed to
avoid all trackable objects. We
haven’t heard of satellite density
affecting any launches to date. Yes,
the debris issue needs more work.Panic at the climate will
inspire more action
Letters, 18 May
From David Flint,
London, UK
Mary Rose criticises my belief
that people should panic at the
threat of a climate breakdown.
She objects to “stopgap measures”,
but, in an emergency, such actions
are necessary to prevent the
issue worsening.
Her preferred approach –
prioritising economic growth
and hoping for a technological
fix – is what got us here, and
caused global emissions to rise by
2 per cent last year. Our problem is
that governments are makingneither the short nor the long-
term changes that are needed.
They continue to encourage coal
production and new runways
while cutting support for
renewables and energy efficiency.
Yet we know most of what we
need to change. What is lacking
is the will to do it, and that can
only come from strong feelings.
I think panic is entirely rational.For cyclists, being safe
means being seen
The Last Word, 27 April
From Peter Groome,
Winscombe, Somerset, UK
Keith Oldham discusses how
cyclists tend not to be penalised
for improper or dazzling lights.
I was a lawyer involved in a
prosecution for careless driving,
where a van driver ran into a
stationary cyclist on a busy street
at dusk and knocked her into the
path of an oncoming lorry,
causing life-changing injuries.
The cyclist had a single non-
flashing rear light and the driver
didn’t see her. The dashcam
showed that the point of
continuous red light disappeared
into the stream of oncoming cars’
headlights and fog lights (of
course, it wasn’t foggy). Evidence
from two experts convinced the
court that the van driver couldn’t
be held responsible because the
cyclist wasn’t sufficiently visible
against the glare.
Cyclists are aware of how
vulnerable they are, and of the
indifference towards their safety
demonstrated by so many other
road users. Flashing lights offer
much more contrast and visibility.
Of course, cycle lights shouldn’t
dazzle others, and some
manufacturers offer products
that carefully mask this portion
of the beam.
Many will surely have noticed
the number of cars that seem to
get away with illegal lights. In my
experience, I see approximately
1000 cars with incorrect lights
for every such bicycle. That is
partly down to insufficient
policing of all road users. ❚Want to get in touch?
Send letters to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London
WC2E 9ES or [email protected]; see terms at
newscientist.com/letters