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Your perceptive article rightly contends that physics (and probably any area of human understanding) can't be done without metaphysics. This is because of the questions that are unavoidably raised around our view of the nature of reality. This is why I favour a return to the old term "natural philosophy" for science in its broadest …

Memories that can't be recalled, but still influence us, surely have a close neighbour in those names or words that we know we know, but can't quite bring to mind. For me, the name of a person or place can sometimes escape my grasp just as I am about to say it. That name is …

The goal of incorporating symbiosis machinery in the roots of non-legume crop plants is worth the investment, but we can never "get rid of chemical fertilisers" totally. Even if we establish bacterial symbiosis in grass crops, for example, and then apply composted animal and human manure, to be able to produce enough food to feed …

I take issue with Ronald Watts's interpretation, in the debate about how to deter car use, of what parking charges are. I pay a tax to the UK government to put a motor vehicle on the public highway( Letters, 28 June ). Why would my payment apply only when my car is moving?

Here is another idea about how language arose. As pitch-based communication is widespread among non-human animals, could language have developed from similar-pitched Tarzan-like calls specific to a tribe, by which they could identify its members? As we became more complex, a wider repertoire of melodic vocalisations was needed. Pitched sounds could then have been differentiated …

As some corporations continue to exploit and pollute the physical environment, so big tech media corporations are re-engineering the psychological environment. It is evident that they control and manipulate information for gain. Of course, it was ever thus, but current internet media power and reach now means that influence, for good or bad, can be …

Regarding "AI doesn't understand the word 'no' ". The AI-generated summary of trail users' comments for a particular trail in a popular hiking app said that there were ticks. But when I read through the comments myself, the only mention of ticks was that there were no ticks( 31 May, p 16 ). This result …

I live in a very bad tick region and I spend hours each day outside always worrying about getting bitten. I was shocked by the idea that anyone wouldn't want a vaccine that worked in part by giving them an unpleasant reaction to a tick bite. A choice between getting a bad disease from a …

Excellent article on ticks, and new approaches to controlling them and the diseases they spread. However, the sidebar on how to avoid them omitted a much more effective way to handle exposed clothing. Before washing, throw it in the dryer on high for at least 10 minutes. The clothes will get a lot hotter, and …

From 28 June, p 28

In a review of Matt Wixey's Basilisk , you credit David Langford's 1988 story BLIT with the idea that mere exposure to certain images could cause physical harm. This reminded me of David Cronenberg's 1983 film Videodrome , in which a TV show induces brain tumours. Brings back memories of renting films on VHS tape.

A dead satellite gets struck by a micro-meteorite sending a signal to Earth. To an alien, that satellite could look a lot like a doorbell( 28 June, p 13 ).