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Marc Bekoff decries the planned grizzly bear hunt near Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks in the US ( 1 September, p 22 ). He mentions that 21 hunters were licensed by lottery, and that wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelsen won one of the permits to hunt grizzly bears and does not plan to use that …

Simon Oxenham describes a data analysis suggesting that waves of support for populist politics peak 10 years after financial crises, and asks if it will be same this time as economies recover after the 2008 crash ( 15 September, p 22 ). But the recent populist surge may not follow this pattern if a decade …

People, asked about eternal life, looked at Keith Richards and said 'nope'? Tracy Jones invokes the gnarled Rolling Stones guitarist to wonder why only one in five of us favour immortality ( 22 September, p 8 )

You list the emissions of electric cars as "none" ( 8 September, p 20 ). I am in full, enthusiastic support of the research and development of non-fossil-fuel-burning vehicles, but must point out that although battery electric vehicles have no emissions at point of use, unless they are all charged from renewable power sources, their …

Colin Cook observes that smart meters may make for noisier neighbours, with people running washing machines at night when electricity prices drop, for example (Letters, 1 September ). In a similar vein, I use off-peak electricity to recharge my electric car on an "Economy7" tariff, which offers cheaper power for seven hours each night. The …

I am always amused to read articles on our human ancestry, and findings relating to how Homo sapiens "interbred" with other "species" such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. You report, for example, that a prehistoric teenager was the offspring of these two species interbreeding ( 25 August, p 7 ). I long ago came to the …

It was good to see James Croll recognised as the first scientist to link ice ages with orbital fluctuations of Earth ( 25 August, p 34 ). The loss of support for his ideas in the late 19th century may, however, have had less to do with Victorian sniffiness about his working-class background than with …

What is the world coming to? Eric Clow notes gastroenterologists, obstetricians and gynaecologists tending to wear bow ties rather than "knotted ties" (Letters, 25 August ). A bow tie is knotted. A clerk in my former law firm took to bow ties after he leaned over our first shredding machine to see how it worked, …

Gabriel Carlyle says a charged alkaline battery may weigh a tiny bit more than a discharged one (Letters, 1 September ). But hearing aid batteries work by reaction with air or moisture, and gain mass as they discharge. I have measured a discharged battery as weighing 95 milligrams more than a new one. When dropped …

Dave Neale suggests that we read Â鶹´«Ã½ because we don't think we know everything (Letters, 1 September ). Some of us only read the magazine looking for opportunities to send in corrections for publication.