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Timothy Revell suggests that watchdogs could go through the code of an artificial intelligence "line by line" to understand the decisions it makes ( 14 April, p 40 ). But it isn't the code that matters: it is the data set on which the code is trained. A classic example is the automatic tap which, …

Timothy Revell's discussion of the need for transparency in computer systems that decide whether or not you get a loan, or how long you will spend in jail, was most welcome. But can we stop calling them "algorithms"? An algorithm, such as the rules for long multiplication, is precise. All the systems that the article …

Garry Trethewey seems to think that renewable energy sources weren't behind South Australia's state-wide blackout in 2016 (Letters, 7 April ). As the final report of the Australian Energy Market Operator sets out, there were two issues. Why did 450 megawatts of generating capacity drop out? This was connected with over-sensitive safety settings on wind …

Making tools from stools is neat ( 14 April, p 15 ). But it's not new. In his autobiography , the Danish explorer Peter Freuchen writes about the time he took shelter from a blizzard under his sledge in Greenland and realised the snow that had drifted over him had frozen, entombing him. He couldn't …

My wife, Jennifer Darnley, has suggested to me that one major reason for the development of patriarchal communities was the realisation that sex is required for a pregnancy, and that children were not in fact created spontaneously by the magical powers and choices of women alone. This switched the power balance towards men by creating …

Anil Ananthaswamy and Kate Douglas relate the origins of patriarchy to patrilocality: women moving to their spouse's place. Indeed, research into the history of one English county shows that the elder sons of landowners remained with the land. But the men of working-class families travelled to find work and women remained in their village of …

Anthony Warner extols the virtues of statins and argues that they should routinely be taken to reduce cardiovascular disease, which kills one in three globally ( 21 April, p 24 ) . But the longer we live, the more likely we are to get cancer. Anyone who loves science and rationality will thus deduce that …

I realise that Warner's article is labelled "Comment" and does not purport to enlighten us on recent research, and that as a blogger and author he is entitled to his opinion about fad diets and antivaxxers. But his sweeping remarks about those who may have an "anti-statin point of view" are infuriating, not so much …

Michael Marshall reports proposals for converting carbon dioxide into useful products ( 17 March, p 34 ). I am sceptical. Let's start with converting CO2 to synthetic fuel. In reversing the combustion process you need to put in at least as much energy as you once got out. In practice, given inefficiencies, you need far …

Jessica Hamzelou writes about memories being encoded into recognisable patterns in the brain, and how this might have therapeutic uses ( 14 April, p 6 ). I was once on a trolley outside the operating theatre awaiting an elective caesarean, when another woman emerged having just had hers – while awake to see it. Naturally …