Â鶹´«Ã½

You report on a genetically engineered yeast that makes a beer taste of hops without the need for hops ( 24 March, p 19 ). Is it possible that the cost of producing such a yeast would be as great as the cost of using hops? In any case, the greatest cost element in producing …

Blame us now, just like 2008 was the fault of home owners... OK, now I'll read the article Fahad Raja hits back at the suggestion that "our" obsession with a "free" internet led to the Facebook data row ( 7 April, p 24 )

Clare Wilson discusses the controversy over the effectiveness of antidepressants ( 3 March, p 27 ). As a psychiatrist with more than 40 years' experience, I am surprised the debate still rages. In psychiatric and research communities, there is total agreement that antidepressants are an incredibly valuable intervention in the treatment of major depression. Not …

You discuss how the gender pay gap permeates science and engineering ( 3 March, p 5 and p 22 ). It is important to highlight and address pay disparity – and it is also important not to confuse equal pay and the gender pay gap. Consider eight female and two male science employees, each earning …

Colin Barras's article on the domestication of humans highlights genetic similarities to domesticated animals and says these may have arisen because tameness helped human cooperation and hence boosted survival ( 24 February, p 28 ). But what happens if environmental conditions change so that "feral/caveman" characteristics are favoured once again? After a pandemic, loners might …

Human self-domestication made for a very interesting article. But perhaps the word "gracile" would be a better description of the relatively lighter build of domesticated species. The word "feminine" comes with a lot of human-specific cultural baggage.

I do not find the idea that our ancestors domesticated themselves very convincing. After all, wolves learned to cooperate in a pack without showing signs of self-domestication. I wonder whether our ancestors were domesticated by Neanderthals and that our predilection towards inventing gods "in our own image" is a memory of this.

Danny Chambers advises the abolition of electric dog training collars ( 10 March, p 24 ). Should he not include electric stock fences?

Julian Smith describes the ecological disasters generated by digging sand for use in concrete ( 17 February, p 35 ). These are only part of the story. Manufacture of cement causes around 5 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions .

• Scorchio! Temperatures on exoplanet K2-229 b reach 2033 kelvin, or 1760°C ( 31 March, p 16 ). • Tyler Hern joined the mussel team at the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery in West Virginia after it first raised purple cat's paw mussels ( 10 March, p 38 ). • The caves in northern …