Letters from our readers – Page 8

  • Opinion

    Fracking lacking concerns

    2012-06-01T00:00:00Z

    Fracking coverage must acknowledge the potential environmental impact

  • Opinion

    Open access overture

    2012-06-01T00:00:00Z

    It's not just academics who are interested

  • Opinion

    In defence of salt

    2012-06-01T00:00:00Z

    It's the dose that makes the poison

  • Opinion

    Seeing the light

    2012-05-01T00:00:00Z

    If big pharma won't bring photodynamic therapy to market, somebody should

  • Opinion

    Truth about science

    2012-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Poor quality research and a lack of scientific rigour are more harmful to science than misconduct

  • Opinion

    The unusual suspects

    2012-05-01T00:00:00Z

    There are more elements in pharma than are dreamt of in Derek Lowe's philosophy

  • Opinion

    Letters: May 2012

    2012-04-27T09:12:00Z

    The article ’Making Light Work’ (Chemistry World, April 2012, p52) coincided with an alarming Daily Telegraph article relating the near-catastrophic increase in antibiotic resistance due to misuse by the NHS and in agriculture. It seems that big pharma is no longer interested in infection control for two reasons: Any ...

  • Opinion

    Grant clarity

    2012-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Applicants do not help their proposals by the apparently careless way in which they sometimes present their applications

  • Opinion

    Letters: April 2012

    2012-03-28T10:56:00Z

    As an affiliate member of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC’s) peer review college, I would like to comment on the article about NERC’s intention to reduce the number of uncompetitive proposals submitted for funding (Chemistry World, March 2012, p17). For several years, I have helped in ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: March 2012

    2012-02-24T08:38:00Z

    The article ’Silver soils’ (Chemistry World, February 2012, p36) highlights some interesting recent events relating to the environmental impact of silver residues. While a wealth of evidence exists to show that silver ions are toxic to lower organisms, there is less evidence that nanocrystalline or other forms of silver present ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: February 2012

    2012-01-27T10:57:00Z

    In his comment article, David Fox (Chemistry World, January 2012, p42) highlights the importance of having access to a well-curated repository of small molecules for drug discovery (and chemical genomics), but he feels that it is important to ’combine a well-validated target with a means of intervention that minimises attrition ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: January 2012

    2011-12-22T11:16:00Z

    Why is Chemistry World so shy about showing the language of chemistry on its pages? We do after all possess, along with music, one of the most efficient notations ever invented. So, in the latest edition I was very interested to see an article on marine adhesives (Chemistry World, Dec ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: December 2011

    2011-11-29T08:39:00Z

    Metals and metalloid elements in the environment have a major impact on human, animal and plant life as seen in the recent Hungarian red mud catastrophe. Some elements like calcium, iron, zinc etc serve as essential nutrients without which life fails to thrive, whereas lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, antimony and ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: November 2011

    2011-10-28T08:59:00Z

    The presenter of the BBC Horizon programme which dealt with the safety of nuclear installations broadcast on 14 September was careful to avoid commitment but clearly implied that, based on the concept of tolerability of risk, the nuclear energy industry is as safe as any other of equal size ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: October 2011

    2011-09-29T14:43:00Z

    The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has recently announced worrying new policies, which many scientists believe will ’sound the death knell for fundamental scientific research in the UK’. One of the first two to be arbitrarily targeted with reduced funding is synthetic organic chemistry, a subject that is ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: September 2011

    2011-08-30T09:49:00Z

    In his Last retort article on chemical words (Chemistry World, June 2011, p72), David Jones comments that the chemical name of DDT is the only one he knows of which fits perfectly into a poem. Paul Ehrlich’s anti-syphilis drug Salvarsan has also been set to poetry. The following limerick ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: August 2011

    2011-07-29T08:52:00Z

    I read with interest and some trepidation your recent article on UK copyright laws (Chemistry World, July 2011, p11). The Digital Opportunity report mentioned in the article recommends that the UK Government introduces an exception to its copyright law to allow text and data mining of copyright works for non-commercial ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: July 2011

    2011-06-30T11:49:00Z

    Many models of chemical bonding have been proposed over the past century and a half. The one clear concept that comes from all of these is the importance of the chemical bond, a localised interaction between two neighbouring atoms, but as Philip Ball pointed out (Chemistry World, March 2011, p33), ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: June 2011

    2011-05-31T13:07:00Z

    In reference to your recent editorial (Chemistry World, May 2011, p2) where the ethics of biofuels are discussed, we believe it is misleading to suggest that deforestation and the displacement of indigenous people are a result of biofuel production. It is accepted that logging is the primary cause of these ...

  • Opinion

    Letters: May 2011

    2011-04-28T09:59:00Z

    There are many ways of discovering truth. The scientific method is one of the best. It depends on the carrying out of repeatable experiments. Science cannot really deal with a unique event. So I am surprised that Philip Ball (Chemistry World, April 2011, p33) dismisses so easily the practicality of ...