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Elle Hunt gives a positive review of Christine Webb's book The Arrogant Ape , which aims to demolish the myth of human exceptionalism. Yet it is the case, for example, that while we hold people morally accountable for their actions, we don't do this with other animals. This suggests that human exceptionalism may not be …

Christine Webb offers a much-needed challenge to the "God made man in his image" view and its consequences. The myth persists in various forms despite humans continuing the wrecking of the planet and the extinction of its creatures. The Homo sapiens name is richly ironic for what might more accurately be described as the human …

If I'm not mistaken, we are the fastest, strongest, smartest, most innovative, curious, talented species on the planet. With our incredible minds, we have made supersonic jets and Mars rovers, and harnessed the power of the atom. Meanwhile, chimps are still slinging poop at each other. Show us some respect. Admiration. Awe.

With regard to our inability to analyse consciousness, may I offer the following Gödelian observation? If our minds were simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand them.

Jonathan R. Goodman argues that the selfish gene view of evolution is correct and bemoans the "old and tired" debate on whether niceness and group selection trump that. It is this binary thinking that is old and tired. Evidence for each view exists and must be synthesised into a 360-degree view. Competition and cooperation are …

Richard Black asks if a hearing aid can be designed with software to selectively amplify sounds coming from the direction you are facing. I can tell him that my hearing aid does exactly that ( Letters, 22 November ). Instead of picking up all the sounds entering the ear and amplifying select frequencies, my hearing …

You report that a study by Satoshi Kojima and his colleagues may have solved the mystery of why birds sing at dawn, suggesting singing is suppressed by darkness, leading to a build-up of motivation that is released when the dawn breaks. This may explain the mechanism that mediates the diurnal pattern of singing, but it …

Regarding the feature Songs from the caves, the Lascaux cave paintings in France include a star map of the Taurus region of the sky with a bull painted around the Hyades, just as the constellation is depicted today ( 22 November, p 34 ). Dated at 17,000 years old, surely this is the oldest provable …

On the discussion of knowing when to give up on your goals, I contend that longing for perfection of oneself is an exercise in futility and frustration. Why? Because none of us is perfect and, despite our best efforts, alas, none of us will ever be perfect. Let's all relax a little and not set …

The Torino scale assigns asteroids a score of 0 to 10 based on their size, energy and probability of hitting Earth ( 15 November, p 38 ).