• In our news story on genetically engineered soybeans (19 March, p 9) and the editorial accompanying it (p 5), we mistakenly stated that trans-fatty acids are saturated fats. As several readers have pointed out, trans-fatty acids contain chemical double bonds which, by definition, are absent from saturated fats. Although not saturated, trans-fatty acids are thought to have equally harmful effects on the cardiovascular system, which explains why the US is to introduce labels from 1 January 2006 informing consumers of the trans-fatty acid content of foods.
• While drawing up the bar chart for our feature on cannabis and psychosis (26 March, p 44) we swapped the numbers for Sweden and the Netherlands, giving the erroneous impression that the Netherlands, not Sweden, has the lowest consumption among 15-year-olds.
• We misleadingly reported that methane emissions over tropical rainforests are 4 per cent higher than expected (26 March, p 20). In fact the 4 per cent figure relates to methane concentrations above the forests, a difference which requires emissions to be 66 per cent greater than previously thought.
• Reviewing A Geologic Time Scale 2004 (26 March, p 55) we omitted to mention that a paperback edition is available at £40, ISBN 0521786738.
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