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Fear of snakes really is hardwired, as your look at our fascination with monsters highlights. At a social meeting, I had an involuntary startle reaction, thinking I had seen a python out of the corner of my eye – a friend was wearing brown trainers with a pale buff "eye stripe" either side. The feeling …

I and many others have argued that goblins, elves, pixies etc. are folk memories of other Homo or hominin species, which we know coexisted with our species. Now, I am going to take this one stage further in relation to "monsters". The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous apparently wiped out 100 per …

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's column made me think that if ever there were a project worth saving with a crowdfunding campaign, it would be the Chandra X-ray Observatory. There are millions of scientists, science students and astronomy aficionados around the world who would, I believe, contribute to this worthy cause to save it from the threat of …

John Hedger's letter on feeding coffee pulp to animals and the necessity of getting out in the field to find out why they weren't thriving made me chuckle ( Letters, 14 September ). In a similar vein, as a duty engineer many years ago, I was called into the control room of a large multinational …

I have to agree that astrology can only be regarded as nonsense. How can the behaviour of any particular one-twelfth of the world's population be governed by the position of the stars at birth( 24 August, p 10 )? However, please consider the following: it is a fact that a mother's behaviour, living conditions, diet …

Although I am a gardener and an allotment plot-holder, I agree with James Wong's calculation that the cost of growing one's own veg exceeds supermarket prices. But what his purely economic calculus omits is the mental satisfaction derived from a hands-on engagement with the natural world, never mind the incalculable benefit of knowing just where …

Most people growing potatoes to save money will cut a supermarket potato into four sections, each with eyes, and grow four plants' worth. Multiply as needed. You may not officially be able to advocate that and it isn't what farmers can do, for reasons Wong states, but that is what gets done.

My tomatoes this year cost nothing. A friend's young granddaughter passed on some spare plants to me. I nurtured them indoors until the weather was good enough, then put them outside in an old bucket with soil and homegrown compost. Now, I enjoy popping out to pick part of my lunch. As for potatoes, end-of-year …

I was delighted to read about the discovery of a new leaf chameleon species in Madagascar, but disheartened by a researcher's comment that the carbon footprint of ecotourism seems to be justified given the benefits of raised public awareness ( 21 September, p 14 ). The short article and accompanying picture of the adorable little …

I've followed the seemingly never-ending search for dark matter. Occam's razor says that if you have two competing ideas to explain a phenomenon, opt for the simpler one. In this case, the simpler option is that there is no dark matter and the laws of gravity need to be modified. I have made this case …