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Sofia Quaglia's article on the oriental hornet's liking for alcohol could explain why the commonest trap in Portugal for the Asian hornet works so well. It may also enable an immediate and easy measure to protect bees if these predators become established elsewhere ( 2 November, p 18 ). This trap uses an empty plastic …

The havoc wrought by feeding farmed fish with wild-caught fish could be eliminated if industrial-scale insect farming were used to provide the feed instead ( 26 October, p 16 ). While convincing people to eat insects is an uphill struggle, it is relatively straightforward to get them to do so indirectly if they are "transformed" …

What an amazing image of Shackleton's ill-fated ship Endurance. The preservation is astonishing compared with that of Titanic. Endurance sits on the seabed at a depth of 3008 metres compared with Titanic at 3800, so both very deep and cold, but the former appears to be in much better order with few signs of steel …

When it comes to fermented food, Isabelle Savary-Auzeloux recommends finding a trusted source and cautions against the do-it-yourself route. That will seem strange to people in South Korea and other countries where traditional fermented food is routinely made at home ( 2 November, p 39 ). Like most home-cooking techniques, fermenting requires some care to …

Regarding cannibalism on the Franklin expedition to find the North-West Passage, 19th-century Scottish explorer John Rae reported signs of this, but was ostracised as a result, and never got proper recognition for his findings ( 5 October, p 15 ).

Epstein-Barr virus was the first human cancer-causing virus to be identified ( 5 October, p 45 ) Gravitational time dilation means that time flows more slowly when gravity is stronger, for example near a black hole ( 19 October, p 22 )

Chris Sherwood's excellent piece on animal communication, "If only they could talk", reminded me of an essay I wrote for Â鶹´«Ã½ more than 30 years ago ( 21 May 1994 ) headlined "Why can't we talk to the animals?". Even way back then, we and other animals could "talk" with one another using visual …

While it would be fascinating to decode the messages that lie behind a cat's purr, a dog's bark or the clucking of a rather overfed chicken, I think we have to be aware of our strong instinct to attribute human qualities to these creatures. While they undoubtedly display intelligence, it is expressed in a way …

Your articles on nutrition brought several strands of information together nicely, although, as with previous round-ups of this, it seems to sum up as "more fibre, less red meat and sugar, more variety" ( 2 November, p 32 ). One theme that I would like to add is that those of us in affluent societies …

I agree with Daniele Oriti that "we have to embrace the fact that we make reality", and note readers' responses. We need to keep in mind that relativity and quantum physics have comprehensively undermined our classical, or Newtonian, view of reality ( 12 October, p 40 , and Letters, 2 November ). For instance, we …