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Sally Adee says that proposed systems to tie all internet activity to real-world user identities "would solve the problem of hauling someone known only as 'Haxxor420' into the dock" ( 31 March, p 22 ). But any such system would have holes, ones which those intent on criminal activity would not hesitate to exploit. A …

Your special report on patriarchy goes some good way towards raising the profile of science in what appears to have been the province of social science ( 21 April, p 34 ). How far the magazine has come! Gendering pressure is administered in patriarchal societies through households even before infants are socialised. All, including mothers, …

Your excellent report gives many explanations for the profusion of patriarchal societies and asks: how did we get here? Part of that was an enormous change that occurred within Western society in the early 4th century. Up until then, in the early days of Christianity, women and men were equally involved: women as well as …

Don't hold your breath waiting for such a ban to happen in the US Melissa Liechty responds to the news of a European Union ban on neonicotinoid pesticides outdoors, to save bees ( 5 May, p 7 )

Like Mark Sheskin, I do not maintain that current extreme levels of inequality are reasonable ( 31 March, p 28 ). But I observe that beyond a certain level of wealth, assets become barely recognisable as personal wealth ( 28 July 2012, p 40 ). People can have lavish lifestyles and extend these to their …

Andy Coghlan reports research and discussion about when our ancestors left Africa and arrived in various places around the world ( 14 April, p 10 ). An important aspect of being human is that we are a migratory species. Migration has sustained our existence for most of human history and has carried ideas and technical …

You mention a man being "let off with a caution " (Feedback, 14 April ). A police caution requires an admission of guilt, and becomes part of a person's criminal record. Cautions must be disclosed and can be taken into account in sentencing for other offences. Granted, the let-off misconception is widespread. I have seen …

• Coming of age in New York: Margaret Mead in fact studied at Columbia University ( 28 April, p 42 ).

Classical Greek had three words for time : aeon for time as a concept, including eternity; chronos for clock time; and kairos , the opportune moment. Chronos was a measure of change, marked by rhythmical beats: the lunar phases, the sun's cycling around Earth, the seasons, the swinging of a pendulum and, now, atomic transitions. …

Brooks states that we can move as we please in space. Is this true? I think we can move only forwards, which is whatever way we are facing, unless we walk backwards, which would be going forwards but facing the wrong way. We can't move into negative space any more than we can go backwards …