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I have been a classic middle-class microdoser when it comes to the weight-loss drug Wegovy. For nine months, I took 0.5 milligrams a week (instead of the recommended maintenance dose of 2.4 mg) and lost over 20 kilograms. It was amazing. However, I became increasingly grumpy, so I decided to stop for a while. Ten …

It is suggested that rewilding with large herbivores could sequester a lot of carbon in soil. But does this work long-term? I worry that soil contains a host of bacteria that love to degrade carbon to carbon dioxide. And ruminant herbivores, among the rewilding animals suggested, emit a lot of methane. ( 29 March, p …

Finally, an acknowledgement of the power of nature to absorb/build carbon – but will we allow it to? Growing in monocultures at the expense of everything else poses the greatest threat to biodiversity, food and water security and resilience to flood, fire and drought. If we stop and devote all farmland to sustainable practices, all …

Your article on the mathematical breakthrough bringing together three sets of equations relating to particles and fluids ends with a line saying that the implications of the work aren't yet understood. With the techniques being grounded in Richard Feynman's work on quantum field theory, and with the obvious parallels with particles vs fluids and waves, …

I have been reading with amusement the discussion on how to cook the perfect boiled egg. Â鶹´«Ã½ put the matter to bed for me when the Last Word ( 13 June 1998) published a formula from reader Charles Williams for this. It went as follows: Cooking time = (m (2/3) ) × /c, where …

Surely additional years at school or in higher education wouldn't be the sole means of building the cognitive reserve now regarded as a means of postponing the onset of dementia. A number of trades requiring an apprenticeship and continual accumulation of technical skills and know-how, perhaps over an entire lifetime of employment, could be equally …

I was particularly struck by the idea in Laura Spinney's article that some folk myths may date back as far as 60,000 years when, it is believed, a few Homo sapiens individuals made their way out of Africa. I have often wondered whether the tale of Moses crossing the Red Sea had its origins in …

An important point regarding bodily energy levels is missed. If things aren't going well in our lives, we will feel depressed. The level of which will depend on how bad the situation is. In this state we feel tired and maybe want to sleep more than usual. We can't feel full of energy while like …

Brian Horton makes a good point about the need for versatility within a single robot design, but there is no reason a specifically human form is needed for this. A quadruped with a many-armed torso, or some sort of tentacled octopoid design, could serve just as well. As could a robot composed of reconfigurable jointed …

I have a theory that the oldest computer code is found in the program on which our simulated universe runs. Glitches caused by incompatible code lead to some unexplained events commented on in your pages. Minor glitches include mislaying 95 per cent of the universe and incompatibility of relativity and quantum physics. Major ones include …

When iron and sulphur occur in "reduced form", they have gained electrons ( 29 March, p 18 ).