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What is all this talk about rescuing nature? There is no need for that 20 February, p 34 . I got this! I know I have been infected by an extremely smart and super deadly parasite, but I am taking strong measures to eradicate it. I am altering my environment to make it unlivable for …

While I agree with the sentiments of Graham Lawton's article, I feel that labelling the natural crisis as a post-1945 one is wrong. When I was born in 1945, none of England's original native forest was left – and hadn't been around for hundreds of years. North American passenger pigeons used to darken the sky …

You didn't mention microbes. The bacteria and archaea, as well as many other soil organisms, are probably key to the successful regeneration of impoverished soils, allowing the renewal of the more visible plant species.

There is a glaring omission in your rescue plan for nature: without halting human population growth, it is doomed to fail. Your special report ( 14 November 2020, p 34 ) was the first time you examined in depth the connection between having too many humans and environmental devastation. Don't let it be the last. …

I am amazed at the lack of ambition expected of individuals when addressing climate change 20 February, p 30 . In your review of Bill Gates's book, you mention UK government advisers thinking the population could reasonably be expected to cut meat and dairy consumption by a fifth by 2050. I would say that by …

James Marshall's "Borrowing bee brains" article caused a real buzz 20 February, p 23 . It was fascinating to read that, having reverse-engineered part of the visual system and navigation and memory sensors of bees, he and his team created autonomous drones. Should sufficient numbers of these be flown together to create a viable "swarm", …

Robin Dunbar talks about the differences between people who are "larks", using their phones mostly during the day, and "owls", using them mainly at night, in a study of 30 students ( 6 March, p 36 ). The owls phoned more people frequently than larks did, but spent less time on the phone to each …

Your article on friendship brought a flashback to a science-oriented cruise of the Norwegian fjords that my wife and I took. One of the talks was by Dunbar, on the hierarchies of friendship groups. He mentioned "Dunbar's number", the 150 or so people you know well enough not to be embarrassed to join uninvited for …

In recent weeks on your pages, we have learned how to deal with or even kill both slugs and flies ( 27 February, p 49 ). Perhaps it is time to give their side of the story. Most of the 40 or so species of slug are active recyclers/composters in the garden, with similar positive …

The idea of a slower-than-light warp drive is interesting ( 6 March, p 16 ). But I wonder if any civilisation with the resources necessary to fabricate a spaceship's shell compressed from something that was Earth's mass, and then accelerate it, would find it easier to achieve time dilation by the still complex, but slightly …