YOUR OPINIONS ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND OUR MAGAZINE
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Gender pain gap
I found Dr Michelle Griffin’s column on the gender pain gap (New Year, p38) very interesting and it got me wondering: has anyone considered the extent to which different languages or cultures might play a part? We lived outside the UK for 40 years and found that German and Dutch doctors, for example, considered British healthcare’s attitude to all sorts of medical issues to be completely potty.
In the UK, my wife was often dismissed with phrases such as: “it’s your age” or “you’re a woman”. However – and this is worth thinking about – when she went to a German or Dutch doctor, they would consider these views as nonsense. Age and sex didn’t come into the way she was listened to and subsequently treated, unless there was a physiological reason for doing so. Perhaps linguistic and cultural differences factor into the way that women are, or aren’t, treated when visiting a doctor.
Tom, via email
WRITE IN AND WIN!
The writer of next issue’s Letter of the Month wins
a pair of hardback popular science books. Put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and you could get your hands on Tales From a Robotic Worldby Dario Floreano and Nicola Nosengo, and The Spirit of Mathematics by David Acheson.
Carbon-neutral transport
In your article about the best innovations of 2023 (New Year, p49), you mention the world’s first net-zero carbon shoe: the Allbirds M0.0NSHOT – a very commendable feat. However, the shoes are made from material produced in New Zealand and will, presumably, be sold all over the world. I’m intrigued to know how the shoes will get to shops and customers in countries outside New Zealand without using any carbon. That’s the tech we really need!
Elizabeth Mullenger, via email
An enormous catch
The news story about a big planet orbiting an ultracool star (New Year, p24) got me thinking. As the protoplanetary disc doesn’t seem to have enough mass to form such a large planet, what if the planet was captured? Roaming rogue planets have been found, what are the chances of this happening?
Steve Duggan, Ebbw Vale, Wales
They can’t all be clouds, right?
In your ‘Best science images of 2023’ feature, you claim that many UFO sightings are a direct result of lenticular cloud formations (New Year, p19). In other words, observers mistakenly think that
