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As an aside to your look at a book on hype over AI abilities, we had an unfortunate encounter with an AI that was recently introduced to health software that triages for our local doctor's office. I was referred by a pharmacist to my doctor because my eyes had developed a severe allergic reaction to …

As a counsellor and psychotherapist, I have a different take on emotions. What would be the point of them if they weren't useful? We have them whether we like them or not( 10 May, p 30 ). Generally, we like the so-called positive ones and not many others. But they serve a major purpose, nudging …

If mechanochemistry can transmute chemical compounds by smashing them in a ball mill, perhaps the chemical precursors of life didn't arise in a warm tidal pool, but under rocks and pebbles compressed by geological forces( 24 May, p 38 ).

The impact of microplastics on animal brains – and probably human cognition – got me thinking, while I still can. While we are engineering our downfall with plastics, we may unwittingly be crafting a "solution": minds immune to microplastics, in the form of AI. Could we also engineer our way out of this conundrum? Or …

James Wong suggests tomatoes may do better when grown near basil. I found something similar, but different. When creating a veg garden, I thought I would test the companion-planting theory by growing basil and tomatoes – some near each other, some not. It wasn't a scientific study, but I found basil grew bigger when next …

The continuing arguments about the absorption spectrum of the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b shows the difficulty of such research. Who selects the size and contents of the set of molecular spectra against which to compare the planet's data? The original 20 molecules seems an absurdly low number. That an expansion to 92 gives different …

I am a writer of mainly historical novels. I scored fairly high on your imagination tests. That said, there was a time about 11 years ago when my imagination faltered after I had a haemorrhagic stroke. After a few days in intensive care, I was put on pills to reduce high blood pressure. Suddenly I …

You don't need complex research to find how to cut onions with no tears. When I chop them, I put my scuba mask on. Problem solved( 24 May, p 12 ).

Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt ( 7 June, p 27 ).

Presenting a gene-editing project as the "de-extinction" of the dire wolf confuses the true status of such a creation. Sadly, the threat of extinctions may eventually be made more acceptable by the offer of technology to "regenerate lost species"... for a price. Marketing such projects could be interpreted as offering profitable tech fixes as an …