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The comparison of mitigation and elimination strategies for covid-19 misses an interesting alternative approach – tolerance ( 19 June, p 10 ). This focuses on accepting covid-19's spread and deploying practical, focused hygiene measures rather than societally disruptive interventions. It has been used in Sweden and in Florida , where it was introduced in time …

You report that it is possible that aliens orbiting 1402 stars near Earth could be looking at us right now ( 3 July, p 20 ). That is very worrying. Before being watched by others, we need to comb our hair and put on our best clothes. Suppose that aliens could pick up our television …

James Fenton correctly states that the word "natural" is pointless unless it is defined in opposition to "artificial" ( Letters, 26 June ). I have often wondered whether our species is misnamed. Perhaps it should be Homo callidus , meaning clever, crafty or sly, as in "man who is too clever for his own good". …

A 2018 study led by Angelo Gemignani and Andrea Piarulli on slow breathing's effect on brainwaves ( 19 May, p 34 ), found no link between the nasal stimulation used and sleep or drowsiness.

You report new plans to test iron fertilisation of oceans to promote phytoplankton growth for carbon capture purposes ( 3 July, p 13 ). Given the projected environmental challenges facing us, it is worth doing a truly major, multinational experiment to see if we could actually figure out how to do this safely and well. …

The interview with behavioural scientists Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony described a system that seems similar to the trade-off studies, also known as figure of merit analysis, used by engineering teams to help reduce bias and arrive at an optimal decision ( 19 June, p 40 ). A trade-off study solicits individual opinions of several …

Further to the new developments in the tangled tale of human evolution ( 3 July, p 10 ). Reconstructions of the faces of Neanderthals and other early humans show they didn't look significantly different to current Homo sapiens . As the so-called modern human is the only variant left standing, perhaps we should rename ourselves …

Low-dose intradermal vaccination (using a smaller dose but putting it into skin rather than muscle) is effective for some viral inoculations. I was successfully vaccinated against rabies in this way, at one-tenth of the usual dose. This approach is potentially very useful for vaccinating large numbers of people and increasing vaccine cover. Given the need …

You report that women are developing fatigue-related long covid to a greater degree than men ( 26 June, p 10 ). Danny Altmann cites the fact that women are more prone to certain autoimmune conditions than men. Hence gender differences in the immune system's behaviour would seem to be the front runner when seeking an …

Your feature on the algorithms that run our lives discussed some of those used for medical triage ( 19 June, p 34 ). An interesting extension of this would be for such algorithms to watch for clusters of cases of illness that, when looked at together, don't fall quite so convincingly into a given diagnosis. …