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James Wong's verdict on the poor efficacy of banana skins as plant fertiliser was spot on. However, it is likely that the widely reported benefits attributed to banana skins for gardeners are down to their polyphenol content ( 11 January, p 44 ). It has been shown that an application of polyphenols can act as …

You ask if Santa's festive surveillance brings about an improvement in children's behaviour. A 6-year-old granddaughter was being encouraged to behave particularly well in the run-up to Christmas because Santa is all-seeing. When she encountered actual Santa in his grotto, he, not having been properly briefed, made the mistake of asking her whether or not …

Anyone can look up the Paris Agreement (PA) text on curbing global warming to see that calling 1.5°C a "goal" is wrong. This matters for several reasons ( 18 January, p 8 ). First, many lower-income countries regarded 1.5°C as fundamentally inequitable, given the implication that high-income countries had used up most of the carbon …

Your look at the lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic largely missed one crucial aspect – that lockdown was a perfect Petri dish for conspiracy theories and blatant untruths to spread and take root across online platforms, contributing to real-world harms ( 4 January, p 7 ). That lesson hasn't been learned; media literacy was …

One thing about the passing of time during the pandemic wasn't that the year of lockdown seemed longer or shorter than normal, but everything from before covid-19 felt like decades ago, even by 2022.

You covered a study that suggests Xenodens calminechari , a new species of mosasaurid named by us, could be based on a forged jaw fossil. We can confirm the authenticity of the fossil ( 25 January, p 21 ). Our team includes world experts in Moroccan mosasaurs. Having published 20 papers, described 10 new mosasaurids, …

Your article on scientific advances helping to increase knowledge of emperor penguins in Antarctica was fascinating. However, there are other problems apart from climate change affecting these and other creatures there. Increased tourism is leading to disturbance of the penguins, especially when newborn chicks are about. Litter is an increasing problem, as is waste from …

As the world continues to react at a snail's pace to the threat of climate change, we need to at least start to experiment with geoengineering. The poles are nearing a runaway feedback loop that will forever change the Arctic and, in turn, world weather patterns. Does anyone truly believe our current governments can cut …

You indicate that we can expect more extreme weather with a wavier northern polar jet stream. I suspect this is even more likely when you consider the effects of an apparently weakening Gulf Stream and its interaction with the jet stream. One possible effect of a disrupted Gulf Stream is a cooling of Europe. Maybe …

I was fascinated by your piece on molluscs with distinctive "punk"-like hairstyles, but think you missed a trick by not headlining it: "Never mind the molluscs" ( 18 January, p 11 ).