Letters archive
Join the conversation in Âé¶¹´«Ã½'s Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
10 December 2025
From Alistair Fraser, Whanganui, New Zealand
As an ordinary reader trying to make sense of the universe before breakfast, I was delighted by your feature on quantum causality. The idea of "causal bubbles" gave me a way to picture the quantum world without feeling out of my depth ( 29 November, p 36 ). By chance, I had just finished your …
10 December 2025
From Chris Arnold, Perth, Western Australia
The article on causality in quantum theory reminds us that, until an observer takes a measurement, we are confronted by a fog of possible alternatives and that the measurement will cause these distributions to "collapse" to finally reveal definite properties. These quantum scenarios appear less weird if we liken them to every point in space …
10 December 2025
From Rod Newbery, Cambridge, UK
Your feature explores the issue that nothing seems to be fixed until it is measured. Measurement can be an observation. What quantum theory doesn't explain is that it all depends on who is observing an object. That is why, after I have failed to find a particular object in the fridge, when my wife then …
10 December 2025
From Wai Wong, Melbourne, Australia
I cannot agree more with Anthony Laverty's article on the need to curb the trend towards big cars. Not only are they more lethal in a crash, they are also more likely to be involved in accidents because of larger blind spots and longer braking distances. I call for regulations to inconvenience big car owners …
10 December 2025
From Karen Morant, London, UK
Laverty perfectly sums up what can only be described as the biggest environmental crisis ever to hit UK roads, and beyond. Let's hope this subject gathers much-needed momentum.
10 December 2025
From Mark Oliver, Melbourne, Australia
In reference to Claudia Canavan's article, "Time for a new you", I have been applying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – which categorises people into 16 personality types – for over 30 years ( 27 September, p 23 ). Despite often being dismissed, it has always "said" everyone is both an extrovert and introvert (just not …
10 December 2025
From Ben Hespe, Manchester, UK
As an agnostic on such matters, but a fellow subscriber to Robert Lawrence Kuhn's hunch that the ultimate nature of consciousness is the key data point to understand humanity's existence – be it physical and accidental or something more profound – I found it disheartening that the previous letters published about his feature uniformly exhibited …
10 December 2025
From Craig Morris, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
James Wong examined the evidence that playing music benefits plants and notes that, while plants cannot hear, they can respond to vibrations, although which types of music and sound affect them positively or negatively remain unknown ( 22 November, p 43 ). A 2018 study in Ecology and Evolution addressed this by testing the music …
10 December 2025
From Mark Dunn, Oxford, UK
Your article on giving up on your ambitions put me in mind of a passage from P. G. Wodehouse that has stayed with me since I read it over 30 years ago ( 15 November, p 28 ). In it, he succinctly summarises the gist of the article: " 'Well, well,' he said, 'if I …