Â鶹´«Ã½

As you report, there is a long history of attempts to design drugs that mimic the effects of exercise ( 24 April, p 46 ). But why use drugs? I was at a conference about 15 years ago where a presenter claimed he had been able to train for a marathon while sitting at home …

Your story "Muons point to new physics" brought to mind an issue that has nagged me for a while ( 17 April, p 14 ). If pairs of particles/antiparticles "pop into existence" and then vanish "moments" later, they would, nonetheless, be part of our physical universe for very short periods of time. They also have …

Erle Ellis and his colleagues argue that as far back as 12,000 years ago, 95 per cent of temperate woodland was shaped by human societies ( 24 April, p 16 ). Earth was then in the grip of the Younger Dryas, a glacial period that caused large areas of the northern hemisphere to be covered …

Priti Parikh is right to draw attention to the importance of good sanitation and clean water supply in tackling childhood undernutrition ( 17 April, p 21 ). While governments should be addressing this, it is possible for anyone to make a contribution. The charity Tearfund has a system of "toilet twinning". For a donation, you …

Our story on Iceland's Fagradalsfjall volcano ( 24 April, p 28 ) meant to refer to the Reykjanes peninsula. Francis Crick coined the term central dogma, which describes the flow of genetic information ( 3 April, p 52 ).

Your excellent feature on the climate emergency was helpful in including a "What can I do?" section 24 April, p 34 . While the effect of a person's lifestyle changes is dwarfed by the impacts that governments can make, if enough of us commit to reducing our carbon footprint, it can still accomplish a lot. …

I urge readers who are concerned about climate change to take action with others and join some of the environmental, advocacy, political or faith-based organisations that are working on this critical problem. This has many benefits, including developing a sense of community and solidarity that can counteract the growing issue of climate anxiety.

In your look at the links between biodiversity and climate change, you state that "measures to limit warming often don't take biodiversity into account 10 April, p 41 . Some, such as the push for biofuels, directly harm it." However, microalgal systems offer significant opportunities to produce renewable biofuels without affecting farming or biodiversity.

Of all the arguments for GM crops, the idea that growing them intensively will release farmland for wildlife is the one I find least persuasive. It seems to be based on the idea that once we grow a certain quantity of food, we will say "that's enough". The evidence suggests otherwise: modern farming already produces …

Your story on the high likelihood of alien civilisations experiencing a climate crisis akin to ours seems to presume that all intelligent life will be destructive 10 April, p 12 . This is only true if life tends to follow the religious notion that a planet is a gift from god to use as it …