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David Adam argues that even the "best science" doesn't have the final word on covid-19 28 March, p 23 . Still, we should applaud the willingness of some politicians to respect the best advice the scientific community is able to offer. I hope that this is extended to other areas of policy, particularly climate change. …

Perhaps the readiness to adopt big lifestyle changes in the face of covid-19 can prompt the realisation that the climate threat isn't going to go away unless we take similar drastic action. Countries that tried to go on with business as usual during the outbreak seem to be having worse outcomes than those that were …

The crisis would be significantly lessened if governments adopted a universal basic income programme for the duration. The cost could be reclaimed through taxation when earnings resume. Research in Finland has found that such schemes confer health benefits ( 16 February 2019, p 10 ). Adopting one could also show how they compare with "universal …

Your report on the Honeywell company working on quantum computing would come as little surprise to some readers with long memories ( 7 March, p 12 ). In the 1960s, Honeywell was one of the big names in commercial computing. At the time, I worked for an electricity supply company. It had a massive Honeywell …

I was very interested to read Jason Arunn Murugesu's report of gulls preferring food that has been touched by humans ( 7 March, p 18 ). In the 1950s, my grandmother lived in Bridlington, on the Yorkshire coast of the UK. She was inclined to feed the gulls on the town's promenade with laxative chocolate …

• Cosmosoma myrodora is in fact a moth; an example of a pollinating wasp is the European paper wasp ( 21 March, p 41 ).

In the past few weeks, I have discovered the joy of print magazines. In the cacophony of constant breaking news about covid-19, the physical medium has provided a much calmer reading experience – and, in many cases, a window into the world as it was only recently, when everything made just a little bit more …

You report on the beneficial effect of vitamin D on the innate immune system, our defence against primary infection with viruses such as the coronavirus ( 28 March, p 44 ). Research has shown that vitamin D protects against viral infections of the upper respiratory tract. Might this, rather than temperature, be the main reason …

Edd Gent discusses an approach to thermodynamics that may improve the energy efficiency of data processing ( 14 March, p 40 ). This reminds me of work on steam engines in the 18th and 19th centuries, which led to the study of thermodynamics. The economist and philosopher William Stanley Jevons noted that consumption of coal …

Hugh Cooke is concerned by the carbon emissions of the rockets used to launch satellites to provide internet services, and the energy required to run the "internet of everything" (Letters, 21 March ). Yet pushing electrons is vastly cheaper than pushing people or goods. Granted, launching satellites is polluting, but I am convinced that this …