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School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia A. C. Grayling's essay (3 May, p 50) , with its leap in argument from diffuse flashes of neuron activity to universal morality, is a series of non sequiturs. Whether one performs an action, or observes someone else doing it, there is a perception of that action. …

You report John-Dylan Haynes finding it possible to detect a decision to press a button up to 7 seconds before subjects are aware of deciding to do so (19 April, p 14) . Haynes then concludes: "I think it says there is no free will." In the same issue Michael Reilly interviews Jill Bolte Taylor, …

Michael Le Page reported rates of belief in evolution from 18 countries (19 April, p 31) . The opinions of residents of Iceland, Latvia and Denmark are reported, while China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Canada and Australia are left out. One country in Asia (Japan) and one country in North America (US) are included, but …

Using bacteria to treat cancer is hardly unexpected (29 March, p 17) . In the 1890s, William Coley effected many cures using mixed killed cultures of Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens . The critical factor was the induction and maintaining of a fever. Tumours typically disappeared completely in under a month ( 12 January, p …

I am a farmer, and I would love to grow trees for Ning Zeng (3 May, p 32) . He can reduce the wood to carbon and then bury it. There are lots of empty ships going back to China, and he could use these to transport the carbon and bury it in empty Chinese …

In response to James Wright's astonishment at the lack of education on mental health issues in schools (12 April, p 18) I would like to point out that there is a wealth of support available to teachers to assist in presenting this issue. I use, for example, materials from the Young People's Unit of Lothian …

At last, a study which would appear to prove conclusively that living near nuclear power plants is a hazard to human health, particularly where children are concerned (26 April, p 18) . For over 20 years government scientists have led the public to believe that clusters of leukaemia around power stations were inexplicable, just coincidence, …

Alice Friedemann does her argument about the fragility of the electronics industry (3 May, p 20) no good with statements such as "computer chips are so fragile that most fail or degrade within four years". If that were true, civilisation would probably have collapsed already. In normal use it is not usually failure of chips …

Feedback finds the peak in web searches for "mitochondria" in October/November (3 May) "inexplicable". That's pretty much the start of the academic year, so isn't it likely that the peak is caused by PhD, MSc and undergraduate students embarking on their projects? That, or the new academic year elicits a level of guilt in academics …

Though a daunting prospect, I wish to take issue with A. C. Grayling's reasoning regarding the biology of moral absolutism (3 May, p 50) . All individuals are genetically predetermined to lie somewhere on a spectrum (sometimes called the autistic spectrum) from extreme empathisers at one end (stuffed as they are with mirror neurons) to …

The article "Carbon Lockdown" (3 May, p 32) refers to trees being buried, with all the uncertainties of eventual carbon release. Why not just bury paper? It will stand up to long-term storage in adverse conditions without toxic by-products. It is unlikely to give off gasses, or to decay into carbon dioxide in the near …

Feedback observes periodicity of searches for "mitochondria" on the Famous Web Search Engine (3 May) : not only does the trend fit nicely with the academic year (with a break for Christmas holidays) but the same results appear for other basic science terms like "lysosome", "nucleus" and "electron". The fact that fewer searches are carried …

I was excited by the insight into research to produce shape shifting "sand" that can morph into any desired shape (26 April, p 36) . It would seem obvious that the shape of individual modules would need to be more or less spherical, dodecahedron perhaps, so that they can interface with as many others as …

Your interesting article on evolution (19 April, p 24) was unfortunately marred by a common problem. Evolution is an extremely broad topic. Stating that someone "rejects evolution" is therefore about as informative as stating that someone "rejects government". Even if people don't believe that humans evolved from earlier animals, this doesn't necessarily imply that they …