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Jeremy Webb reports on the discovery of a genetic variant of Factor VII that leads to reduced blood clotting in some 20 per cent of men, and may therefore lead to methods of reducing coronary heart disease (Â鶹´«Ã½, Science, 29 June). It seems to me, however, that evolution has probably provided us with very …

Perhaps I can supply some additional information relating to the letter from L. R. Newsome, 'Harry was there' (Letters, 13 July). The shop in Soho to which he refers was at 19 Lisle Street and sold wireless components. It was owned by Will Day who in the summer of 1924 had purchased a one-third share …

I act for Hoechst UK Limited whose Agriculture Division has drawn my attention to the article 'Quiet sufferers of the silent spring' (18 May). There are a number of inaccurate statements in the article regarding the incident involving Mrs Enfys Chapman. We should like to set the record straight. Hoechst takes exception to the reporting …

The boxed article 'What are organophosphate pesticides?' ('Quiet sufferers of the silent spring') irrelevantly refers to the herbicide glyphosate. This, though an organic phosphonate-containing molecule, has none of the characteristics of the organophosphate insecticides. Further, glyphosate, which binds tightly to soil particles, naturally degrades within weeks - not years - into materials naturally abundant in …

I was interested to see, from 'Viewers keeps one eye open for 3-D' (Technology, 13 July), that Coca-Cola took the trouble to make 40 million pairs of spectacles when all that is really needed are two fingers placed correctly over one eye. In a book of mine, How to Fool Your Brain (published 1975), I …

It was interesting to read of the 'soft engineering' techniques being developed to control coastal erosion (This Week, 13 July). One possible alternative to using salt-marsh plants to absorb the power of the waves, would be to place strings of wave energy converters off-shore. Wave-generated electricity would be a useful spin-off from flood prevention measures, …

The article by Alexander Smith entitled 'British Gas 'under siege' in Ecuador' (This Week, 6 July) misses a number of important points. The article is illustrated by a photograph of a lorry and piles of timber. This is not a picture of a British Gas operation. Indeed, there were, as a matter of policy, no …

Josef Vavrousek's Talking Point (6 July) concentrates on the need to create new pan-European institutions, charged with correcting past mistakes by co-ordinating new environmental policies and institutions for our continent. He leaves to the final two paragraphs his advocacy for fostering those new human values which encourage sustainable development. I think he has got the …

In his reply (Letters, 13 July) to Graham Chamber's original query on the absence of locking petrol delivery hoses in England, D. A. Seymour (and the accompanying cartoon) both come fairly close to the truth with their visions of flooded forecourts. Like Chambers, I too was frustrated by the absence of the small pin on …

With regard to petrol pump triggers, few people realise this was the real reason for the introduction of the £1 coin - just pop it under the trigger. R. J. Ellis Perth, Western Australia

I would be grateful if any readers could shed light on a much debated question in our office and so stall the flood of very silly suggested answers. Why do flamingos stand on one leg? Kathy Marthan, Derby

The statement ' . . . the average annual dose at Olympic Dam is about 19 millisieverts' in the box in 'How to close a uranium mine' (22 June) was wrong. Average doses are in fact below 10 millisieverts.

May I congratulate you and your contributor Robert Matthews for so bravely (in the circumstances) giving us 'The chip with a sting in its tale' (13 July) the story of how a small company, Charter Technologies, went into liquidation after it tried to sue the Ministry of Defence over a supposedly 'perfect' chip the MoD …

Susan Blackmore's article on meditation (6 July) displays some remarkably slippery and unscientific logic when she notes that because it has the reputation of reducing tension transcendental meditation is often used to treat ailments such as hypertension, asthma, alcoholism and insomnia. Having then drawn attention to experiments which show that among TM teachers both meditation …