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Your look at possible botanical craftwork pre-dating the Stone Age mentioned baby slings as a possible example. However, furry mothers don't need them: their babies have something to cling to. When did humans lose their fur? I suspect a lot of other botanical craft came before baby slings ( 9 November, p 32 ).

If anyone still feels that tool use is what turned our animal ancestors into our human ancestors, may I suggest that the dividing line was when the first hominin used a leaf as toilet paper, though I doubt that any evidence survives.

One reader suggested a remedy to the issue of poor fact-checking in popular science books of sticking to the greatest scientist-writers. I contend we should instead turn to the writing of philosophers of the impeccable logic of Bertrand Russell or David Hume, say, who are better able to discern fact from fiction and hyperbole ( …

No one should base ideas of democratic reform on the belief that ancient Athenian "democracy" was an ideal form of government ( 5 October, p 32 ). Athens hardly invented democracy: there were very large polities in Eurasia that show no trace of hierarchy and must have been organised by council and consensus thousands of …

Regarding the video assistant referee (VAR) system in football, how about adding a few rules about its use? For example, the on-field referee could only request VAR if they were really uncertain about a situation, not just to "make sure", and off-pitch officials could only give their opinion if the referee asked them for it …

Daisy Christodoulou's lament for the English Premier League under VAR shows that football administrators in the UK aren't cricket fans. Many major cricket matches have an off-field third umpire who is equipped with scientific monitoring systems, but who doesn't interfere unless one team appeals an on-field decision to them. Each team has a limit of …

We could do away with video reviews in sport if we framed the rules in terms of the officials' perception of events rather than the events themselves. The sport of race walking did just that when photography showed that the foul of "lifting" – losing contact with the ground – happened far more often than …

I agree with much of "Recipe for disaster", but find the GM food good/organic food bad thinking perverse. Given the ample evidence that high-input farming is degrading land and ecosystems, it would seem that we need to be looking at some version of "GM-enhanced organic growing" to create a truly sustainable system ( 16 November, …

Am I alone in finding the lack of investment in something as seemingly essential or highly beneficial as GM food crops far from astounding? When we consider the lack of meaningful investment in combating major problems such as water pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, it comes as no surprise. If there is no quick …

You report research stating wing feathers originally augmented running in birds. In Tasmania, we have the endemic flightless Tasmanian native hen, or turbo chook. It is fleet of foot and earns its nickname from its supreme ability to rapidly run for cover when chased. The birds can also turn 90 degrees at pace by simply …