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Since 2002, I have been teaching in the further education sector and have seen the impact of new technologies. AI is the most disruptive so far ( 27 December, p 24 ). I started to think about how these models learn, in the context of some well-established theories of learning. While large language models (LLMs) …

Your article "Lichens unleashed" paints a picture of lichens as complex symbiotic communities with the ability to survive in space and thus potentially undertake interplanetary travel ( 27 December, p 38 ). Has anyone considered they could, in fact, be intelligent and highly developed aliens – albeit on a microscopic scale – living peacefully on …

Tim Rafferty's claim that simulators would only have to "simulate our ability to observe the universe" is often called lazy evaluation, but it faces a number of hurdles ( Letters, 3 January ). Objects cannot simply "pop" into existence: their current state requires a massive, recursive calculation of their entire history, effectively forcing a full-scale …

I enjoyed Tim Rafferty's letter about simulation time. However, many simulations run to an end to see a result and then decisions are made based on that result, so it would make sense to run the simulation as fast as possible. This raises the question: do those of us in the simulation experience time at …

If we are indeed living in a simulation run by a "superior" being, one thought consoles me: they will themselves be having doubts regarding their own existence.

Your article "Satellites to provide sunshine on demand" reminded me of a similar proposal reported by Â鶹´«Ã½ in 1998. You kindly printed my letter at that time pointing out that many species of animal use the moon to determine the time to moult or spawn, or use it as a navigation aid when migrating, …

I feel compelled to point out the error in David Longhurst's simplification of Schrödinger's cat. The box that the cat is sealed in contains a vial of poison gas that will be broken by the decay of the single radioactive atom in the box, whereupon the cat will be killed instantly. As there is only …

The repeated reference to returning samples to Earth for study in your article "How to spot an alien" gives me a great sense of foreboding. As a virologist, I don't understand how any rational scientific mind could ever contemplate bringing material back to Earth if, never mind because, it shows some signature of alien life. …

Sam Wong's "A ticklish question" states that "it is impossible to tickle yourself". But I disagree – under one specific circumstance. When sleeping, if I don't keep my twitchy fingers away from my torso, I will wake myself up with that "being tickled by someone else" feeling. I wonder if anyone else experiences this?

An analysis of 14 million children's health records showed that 3.4 million of them received their first covid-19 vaccine dose from January 2020 to December 2021, while 3.9 million of them had covid-19 for the first time (15 November, p 7) .