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Clare Wilson reports that in Parkinson's disease many of the core symptoms are caused by the loss of automatic movements, that many previously automatic tasks require conscious effort, and that this could be the basis for early diagnosis ( 1 December, p 12 ). As a person with Parkinson's, the loss of automatic movement has …

We will pay fuel taxes when corporations pay all their taxes and stop hiding in tax havens Lea Leeloo takes issue with the idea that gilets jaunes protesters in France primarily oppose climate taxes ( 15 December, p 26 )

I was heartened by your report on the launch of Extinction Rebellion ( 10 November, p 4 ). In the face of government intransigence, I believe this climate protest group is the planet's best, last hope, and I would encourage all your readers to get involved. For my part, I am proud to say that …

The loss of fingers seen in the stencils on the walls of Gargas cave in France seems to me unlikely to be due to frostbite. Fingers are often missing, but never the thumb, surely ruling this out. It is also less likely to be due to some ritual amputation. Different fingers are missing on different …

The Bank of England asked the public to nominate dead scientists to portray on the £50 note ( 10 November 2018, p 24 ). Is there something all too impersonal in the way we in Britain celebrate achievement in science? I nominated Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), who was born in British North America and had the …

Richard Mellish claims that the working week hasn't grown shorter as predicted by the economist John Maynard Keynes (Letters, 24 November 2018 ). According to figures collected by Michael Huberman and Chris Minns for a 2007 article in Explorations in Economic History , full-time production workers around the world worked for 64 hours a week …

Ed Hillsman is concerned that "vaccination" against opioids would render these drugs useless if a person later has medical need for them to relieve pain (Letters, 17 November 2018 ). We already face this problem with naltrexone, an opioid antagonist used to prevent relapse in addiction. People receiving naltrexone will be very resistant to opioid …

Chelsea Whyte asserts that 30 per cent of food is thrown away ( 8 December 2018, p 22 ). I asked around my friends and we all eat almost all that we buy. Aside from peelings, little is wasted. So who are these people wasting so much food? Do we need to reintroduce domestic science …

You say the average person in the US discards almost 3 kilograms of food waste per week. I weighed our food waste bin for a week and I can exclusively reveal that our household "wastes" 1.5 kilograms of food per person per week. This consisted, however, of vegetable and fruit peelings, banana skins, two rotten …

I was interested to read about the zero-emissions model aircraft ( 24 November 2018, p 7 ). You say that the electrodes produce ions that push against the surrounding air. I am old enough to remember the advent of jet aircraft in the 1940s. How could they possibly fly with no visible propeller? "They push …