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Annalee Newitz highlights the threat of AI for the creative industry and those whose livelihoods depend on it, but surely I am not the only one who can see that their personality, interests and opinions shine through in every column? It is this personal flair, also seen in features with phrases and anecdotes written in …

I couldn't agree more with Madeleine Cuff's report regarding the carbon taxation of luxuries. However, defining a luxury is no simple matter. She mentions two examples, air travel and SUVs. Imagine three people – A, B and C – are all on the same plane travelling from a small rural town to the big city. …

The James Webb Space Telescope was pricey at $10 billion, but the game-changing science that it is producing really makes it great value for money ( Letters, 22 July ). Your correspondent needs to see it in context and should save her ire for the oil companies that make huge profits by drilling for the …

The idea of UK National Lottery ticket numbers that mathematically guarantee a win of some kind every time you play perked my interest. But on second thoughts, the numbers given in the article would be the very ones I would avoid as, in the extremely unlikely event of any of the tickets matching the jackpot, …

Amid record-breaking warmth in parts of the world, including a rise in sea temperatures, I revisited a discussion with my husband from a few years ago – we are both retired scientists. Why not use thermodynamic systems to get heat from the seas to generate electricity and heat local homes? This could provide significant cooling …

Your report on the problem of raw sewage discharges into rivers during heavy rain indicates one solution is to "green" paved areas in towns to cut runoff. Across the road from me, yet another garden is being paved for car parking. There are few front gardens left on many roads, which is a huge loss …

When built in the 1930s, no houses in my neighbourhood had rainwater pipes connected directly into the main sewer. Instead, their gutter downpipes fed into rubble-packed underground soakaways. While this doesn't reduce rainwater running into the public sewer network from the street, it must considerably minimise the total volume hitting it.

Philip Ball writes of physicists puzzled over when a simulation of a physical entity, such as a wormhole, in a quantum computer is actually real ( 12 August, p 40 ). In my mind, I imagine an animal that is half horse and half lion. No real-world equivalent exists; I have made it in my …

You report the latest instance of hope in the efforts to develop nuclear fusion as a viable power source for our societies, in this case involving a set-up in which more energy emerged from a fusion reactor in the US than was put into it, so-called ignition ( 12 August, p 13 ). You say …

Your review of author Marjolijn van Heemstra's book includes the quote: "Begin your day with what you truly are – deeply improbable. If we appreciated this fully, wouldn't we take better care of each other and the planet?" I appreciate the optimism, but remain sceptical ( 29 July, p 29 ). Many people believe that …