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Leah Crane reported on Hector Socas-Navarro's work on using geostationary satellites as a means to detect potential civilisations across the galaxy ( 17 March, p 16 ). He calculated there needed to be between 10 billion and a trillion in orbit to be observable. This had me reaching for an envelope to write on. Earth's …

Mmm! Can't be any stranger than that found on Earth Hesling Laolcom reacts to discussion of the weird life that alien seas on Titan could host ( 24 March, p 40 )

Anil Ananthaswamy reports that 4-month-old infants expect adults to comfort crying babies, suggesting that we may be born with a foundation of morality ( 17 March, p 15 ). It would be very interesting if similar experiments were done on infants of other primates, such as chimpanzees, bonobos and macaques, as this could throw light …

Your leader advised us to have a good lie-in on the weekend ( 24 March, p 5 ). This was also a minor option in your look at dreams, suggested as part of point one in "Can you boost your dream power?" ( p 34 ). But point five emphasised the need to maintain a …

Gina Perry describes how Stanley Milgram's flawed research on obedience "has been absorbed into our culture" ( 17 March, p 43 ). Still, Â鶹´«Ã½ can be proud that 40 years ago it did its bit to question it. In 1974, it published my review of his book, Obedience to Authority ( 13 June 1974, …

The idea of describing space-time as a fluid undergoing phase transitions ( 17 March, p 30 ) sounds suspiciously like a "luminiferous ether", the all-pervasive medium on which electromagnetic fields were once believed to depend. As I understand it, the concept was dismissed early in the last century in favour of relativity. And so there …

Further to your story on lowering the amount of nicotine in US cigarettes by a third ( 24 March, p 6 ). I would think, as a first approximation, that would raise the number of cigarettes smoked by 50 per cent. That would increase the amount of tar inhaled by 50 per cent, which is …

Anil Ananthaswamy, reporting work on babies' sense of morality, mentions that they preferentially pay attention to material that conflicts with their beliefs ( 17 March, p 15 ). In contrast, Â鶹´«Ã½ 's opinion writers complain frequently about adults preferentially viewing material that supports their beliefs. Has anyone done any research on when this change …

It may be the case that any truths about the world that we find in the future are most likely to be found by science rather than philosophy, as Philip Ball says ( 3 March, p 46 ). But before scientists puff out their chests, they should reflect on the fact that the science that …

You ask whether all publicity for scientific findings is good, in the context of Cheddar Man ( 3 March, p 5 ). In June 1788, the celebrated surgeon John Hunter opened his (now) famous museum . In attendance were the literati of London and, of course, the press. Of particular interest was Hunter's large collection …