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Bill McGuire provides a gloomy assessment of progress since the Paris Climate Conference 10 years ago. He suggests that our failure to keep temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels is largely because this was treated as a target, not a limit ( 21 February, p 16 ). This seems right to …

Bill McGuire makes an excellent suggestion regarding a pictorial "Earth Thermometer" in a similar vein to the Doomsday Clock. The danger is that, like the Doomsday Clock, we would hear about it only once or twice a year and become so used to it being very close to midnight that no one takes any notice. …

On the article "Your brain may determine how long you run for", every runner knows that they are developing their brain just as much as exercising their body. At least 50 per cent of becoming a runner consists of retraining those brain circuits that tell you to stay in bed on a chilly morning rather …

Thanks to Michael Marshall for his fascinating account of the evolution of human hands. It was a curious experience reading about the development of our precision grip while being aware of using this grip to hold the magazine and turn its pages ( 21 February, p 32 ).

It is difficult not to get excited about the idea that faecal transplants may hold the key to a new age of healthy living. But maintaining healthy gut flora will inevitably require a commitment to a healthy diet and exercise ( 7 February, p 9 ). In practice, the more likely outcome, given the scarcity …

Reading Fred Pearce's piece "On the bright side" reminded me how indebted I am to Â鶹´«Ã½ for reviewing Christine Webb's book The Arrogant Ape last year, in which she highlights the dangers of anthropocentrism. I have read it twice and sent copies to several friends, which is a measure of how vital I believe …

You reported on the Dutch air force using AI to read pilots' brain waves to toughen training. Older readers might remember the 1982 film Firefox , starring Clint Eastwood as US pilot Mitchell Gant, who steals a Russian experimental fighter jet that can be controlled by the pilot's brain via a "thought control" helmet. In …

Last year's article "The dark energy illusion" promised a new concept of time, while this year's article "The illusion of time" promised a convincing update. However, what we are actually getting is a strange mix of time being thought of as a dimension, time flowing and time being an illusion ( 31 January, p 28 …

An interesting article on the evolution of our chin. However, surely it misses the obvious: our chins could have evolved in parallel with our ability to think, as they play a crucial role in thinking and cogitation. I think, therefore I am ( 21 February, p 7 ).