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Paul Davies, for whom I have the greatest respect, seems to be invoking a "ghost in the machine" in proposing that we need to consider information as a physical quantity to explain how something made of matter can exhibit the behaviours of life ( 2 February, p 28 ). This seems to be invoking an …

Davies spends a lot of effort trying to explain how life's organised, self-sustaining complexity doesn't really fly in the face of the most sacred law of physics, the second law of thermodynamics, which says entropy in an isolated system tends to increase. It is simple: life doesn't break this law. It merely creates a local, …

Readers gave several excellent answers to a question about how many rotors on a key safe one should move to lock it (The Last Word, 26 January ). These will doubtless find applications in others' everyday lives. A problem is that, sadly, not all honest householders read Â鶹´«Ã½ and, presumably, a number of intelligent …

Charles Swanton debates ditching the term "cancer" when referring to low-risk tumours ( 2 February, p 24 ). This is long overdue, and I would go further. It would be hard to imagine a less suitable name for a disease. Cancer is, after all, Latin for "the crab", an unsettling creature with ferocious claws that …

Perhaps you are correct that too few biologists were keeping watch to spot insects' decline (Leader, 16 February ). But surely at least some would have noticed how windscreens were crushing fewer insects by the mid-1960s ( 28 July 2018, p 28 ). Before then, many vehicles had and needed insect deflectors below the windscreen.

Your report on rethinking when kangaroos first hopped made me recall a question I have long pondered ( 16 February, p 20 ). Members of the kangaroo family exhibit magnificent racing and jumping ability due to their long hind leg tendons, elasticity of stride and counterbalancing tail, with smaller but useful front paws. Many dinosaurs …

Donna Lu reports on systems that allow voters who feel strongly about some issues to give them bonus votes ( 16 February, p 16 ). The result is that the minority can win votes on some issues, but overall satisfaction is increased. A comparable system is commonly used in many parliaments, in which minor parties, …

Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura invented the blue light-emitting diode in the early 1990s. For this, they received the 2014 Nobel prize for physics ( 11 October 2014, p 6 ). More than 25 years later, nobody can agree what it signifies. A blue LED shines when my TV is on standby but …

Farah Mendlesohn interestingly and entertainingly cites historical sources for the labour of tidying up being, and always having been, assigned to women (Letters, 9 February ). It does not follow that men are less tidy by nature. Look at accounts of life on board naval vessels from the 17th century onwards to see just how …

Reviewing Grace Weir's artwork at the Institute of Physics in London, Michael Brooks notes that any explanation of time has to bring together incompatible experiences – or show that time is the greatest illusion of all ( 2 February, p 44 ). I recall how often time is discussed together with the term "illusion", as …