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Which of the different approaches to coronavirus for the festive season in Europe will have worked best? The most important factor at play will have been psychology ( 12 December 2020, p 12 ). The first wave of the virus was governed by fear, trust in science and broad compliance with the rules. Yet after …

The sale of valuable fossils to the highest bidder is unfortunate, but not new ( 28 November 2020, p 23 ). In 1861, when the first largely complete Archaeopteryx fossil was discovered, it was quickly acquired by collector Karl Haberlein, who made his fortune a year later when he sold it to the British Museum, …

To lead a country, large business or institution, you need people skills, often in a Machiavellian way ( 5 December 2020, p 34 ). This means you must be good at understanding other people's minds – in other words, you need a high degree of empathic ability. So, if Simon Baron-Cohen is right and there …

The assertion that the bone flute was "the beginnings of music" cannot go unchallenged. Humans can make music through their vocal cords, so no instrument is needed at all.

Your article on overpopulation is too little and definitely too late ( 14 November 2020, p 34 ). I once had the chance to ask M. King Hubbert, he of peak oil theory fame, if he thought we had enough time to salvage our future, considering overpopulation and its effects on the planet's diminishing geologic …

We, the deist gods, widely believed to have existed since before time began and ever constantly watching over our cosmic creation, have recently become very interested, even concerned. Our worries are centred on the tiny planet Earth, currently suffering from a potentially serious infection of humanitis. The cause seems to be a relatively recently evolved …

Thanks for the early Christmas present of the Kari Leibowitz interview on positive mindsets ( 5 December 2020, p 40 ). What a refreshing article. I wish more doctors and therapists, not to mention friends and relatives, were more like Leibowitz. I wonder how much of the damage of, say, being "clinically obese" can be …

The interview with Leibowitz was full of sage advice. Of particular interest must be the fact that we have some control over our own mindset and can change it for the better, just by thinking positively. It would seem that the arts and sciences may be at one on this. John Milton summed up the …

Bureau of Land Management and American Wild Horse Campaign birth control programmes for wild horses in the US are separate entities ( 19/26 December 2020, p 12 ).

In discussing the Drake equation, which estimates the likelihood of the existence of intelligent alien cultures, Tim Stevenson assumed that N – the number of advanced civilisations in our galaxy – was low, as we haven't heard from any such aliens ( Letters, 28 November 2020 ). With tongue in cheek, may I suggest that …