Â鶹´«Ã½

A lack of transparency from the UK government, as shown by its communication strategy, has probably provided more fuel for speculation in this country than any number of pre-publication papers or amount of raw data. As your leader points out, a deluge of poor information has helped make a bad situation worse. But some of …

The long-term lesson of our current predicament is that pandemics do happen, and when they do, many people can be hurt ( 2 May, p 7 ). I don't expect to see another pandemic – I am 80 – but there is a real chance that my grandchildren will. There is a lot of scientific …

The spread and death toll of covid-19 has made us conscious that we are all connected, as well as of how fragile life, human societies and economies are. The latent possibility of a viral pandemic wasn't a total surprise, but it isn't the only such enemy. What about a solar flare killing our telecommunication satellites, …

I wonder whether there is a serious and overlooked aspect of any drive to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus in order to end the need for lockdowns ( 11 April, p 10 ). Attaining herd immunity, if this is even possible, would require a significant proportion of the population to become infected and develop …

Your piece on how the turtle got its shell was a fascinating insight into the jigsaw that is palaeontology, especially bearing in mind there are so very few pieces to put together to tell the story of the course of evolution ( 2 May, p 36 ). But what particularly grabbed my attention was the …

Your article on consciousness raises the tantalising prospect that the validity of ideas put forward to explain it could become amenable to practical mathematical analysis ( 2 May, p 40 ). This is encouraging. As usual, though, some philosophers have rolled out the argument that the tools of mathematics and empiricism are insufficient to explain …

In your leader, you write: "Non-scientists have many roles to play in defeating the virus, but becoming armchair scientists isn't one of them ( Leader, 9 May )." You are right that there is a huge problem with people who are unwilling to be led by scientists and the scientific method. The turn to science …

You say that "before humans arrived, Neanderthals lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years ( 16 May, p 14 ). When the two met, they interbred." I beg to differ. Humans interbreeding with non-humans surely makes no biological sense whatsoever. I am forced to conclude that Neanderthals were human and that humans were …

Regarding the hunt for an understanding of consciousness, I have to quote the late Stuart Sutherland's astute observation and warning in The International Dictionary of Psychology: "Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved ( 2 May, p 40 ). Nothing …

I agree with the string of readers who suggest there are signs that we live in a simulation ( Letters, 25 April ). Fortunately, Moore's law, which says that computing power tends to double every two years, also applies in some form to the creator or creators of our simulation, so they can keep adding …