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Philip Seargeant discusses the implications of artificial intelligence making it easier to communicate by bridging the gap between speakers of various languages. However, AI might create its own language to communicate with other AIs all over the world and humans won't be able to understand what they are talking about ( 30 December 2023, p …

You note that shipwrecks not only provide refuges for fish, but foil bottom trawling. A good place to put wrecks would be in protected marine reserves. A good source of wrecks would be boats caught fishing in such reserves ( 9 December 2023, p 13 ).

Doubling energy efficiency is a headline target from COP28, but is this a win for the planet or for the fossil fuel industry? If not coupled to reductions in fossil fuel production, rebound effects can diminish the emissions reductions that we would expect ( 9 December 2023, p 8 ). Energy efficiency can even boost …

The saying about the brain being the most complex known structure in the universe is usually stated in relation to its structure, connectivity and circuitry – the connectome ( Letters, 16/23 December 2023 ). Consider this: a human brain has about 100 billion neurons. Protuberances from a neuron make many connections with other neurons. The …

Peter Turchin's studies of social collapse may have relevance to the objectives and means of Russia and other states to enhance the collapse of some Western societies ( 9 December 2023, p 36 ). Can't the West use history to expedite the fall of dangerous authoritarian regimes?

Has anyone taken the following into account in describing a "healthy BMI" for older people? We all lose height as we get older, through vertebral body collapse and loss of hydration of the intervertebral discs. Hence, even if our weight stays the same, our BMI will gradually creep up ( 2 December 2023, p 12 …

Michael Marshall's look at the Mediterranean diet made one key observation I wish he had expanded on. He described how one scientist said different regions of the world may have their own optimum diet. This is what longevity researcher Dan Buettner found in his study of so-called blue zones, where there are high levels of …

I was interested to read about some potential consequences should dark matter consist of "mirror matter". However, if this exists as a mirror duplicate of all particles and the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces, I question why gravity would be the same for mirror matter as for conventional matter, which it would have to be …

I suggest we start stating global average temperature rises in millikelvin instead of degrees Celsius, in which case we would refer to our strictest global warming target as a 1500 mK rise. This sounds more serious than 1.5°C, so might persuade far more people to take serious notice of, and act more quickly on, the …

You report that people with a severe covid-19 infection are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, suggesting that covid-19 heightens the risk of this condition ( 13 January, p 16 ). Alternatively, could people with undiagnosed early schizophrenia be more likely to catch covid-19, perhaps due to some characteristic behaviours?