People often maintain beliefs that can’t be explained away by ignorance. In the face of this, how do we effectively communicate science?Richard Feynman said that the easiest person to fool is yourself. Fooling yourself is a particular danger for the well-educated, who see themselves as smart; and who in all likelihood tend to hang around with like-minded people of similar background and experience. Because you’re smart, your ideas are necessarily good.The danger here is that a self-reinforcing herd mentality arises. Ideas become customs, and customs become Truth. Any deviation from the Truth is to be quashed, and outsiders are mocked and derided. Continue reading...

Technique could also lead parents to create ‘ideal’ future children only –possible impact on society must be planned for now, say specialistsA new lab procedure that could allow fertility clinics to make sperm and eggs from people’s skin may lead to “embryo farming” on a massive scale and drive parents to have only “ideal” future children, researchers warn.Legal and medical specialists in the US say that while the procedure – known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) – has only been demonstrated in mice so far, the field is progressing so fast that the dramatic impact it could have on society must be planned for now. Continue reading...

Carbon-rich peatlands could store three years’ worth of world’s total fossil fuel emissions, say scientistsScientists have discovered the world’s largest tropical peatland in the remote Congo swamps, estimated to store the equivalent of three year’s worth of the world’s total fossil fuel emissions.Researchers mapped the Cuvette Centrale peatlands in the central Congo basin and found they cover 145,500 sq km – an area larger than England. The swamps could lock in 30bn tonnes of carbon that was previously not known to exist, making the region one of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. Continue reading...

Based on simulations, dive including one-and-a-half somersaults and five twists is physically possible – researchers just need a diver to try itOlympic divers are judged on power, agility and the ability to crisply execute improbable combinations of somersaults and twists in the couple of seconds it takes to travel from the board to the pool below.Now, a pair of Australian mathematicians have devised a dive of unheard of complexity, which includes one-and-a-half somersaults and a record five twists. Continue reading...

Reluctance of healthcare providers such as NHS to pay for expensive drugs is behind lack of research, says Oxford professorNo new drugs for depression are likely in the next decade, even though those such as Prozac work for little more than half of those treated and there have been concerns over their side-effects, say scientists.Leading psychiatrists, some of whom have been involved in drug development, say criticism of the antidepressants of the Prozac class, called the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), is partly responsible for the pharmaceutical industry’s reluctance to invest in new drugs – even though demand is steadily rising. Continue reading...

Students in São Paulo are examining remains of man known for medical experiments on Jews at Auschwitz to uncover mysteries of his life on the runFor more than 30 years, the bones of Josef Mengele, the German doctor who conducted horrific experiments on thousands of Jews at Auschwitz, lay unclaimed inside a blue plastic bag in São Paulo’s Legal Medical Institute.Dr Daniel Romero Muñoz, who led the team that identified Mengele’s remains in 1985, saw an opportunity to put them to use. Several months ago, the head of the department of legal medicine at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School obtained permission to use them in his forensic medical courses. Today, his students are now learning their trade studying Mengele’s bones and connecting them to the life story of the man called the “angel of death”. Continue reading...

Newly recognised species given the name ‘Skywalker hoolock gibbon’ by the team that proved it was distinct from other Chinese gibbonsScientists have discovered a new species of gibbon living in south-west China’s rainforests.Although scientists had been studying the primate for some time, new research has revealed it is in fact a different species. Continue reading...

Research in the Scottish Borders has produced some amazing finds - and suggests that our view of the fossil record needs a rethinkI held in my hands one of the first animals to drag itself out of the water and onto land. Christened “Tiny”, she (I like to think it was female, but we can’t actually tell) is entombed in a chunk of boring, black rock. I ran my hands over the surface, feeling the bumps betraying a stone pregnant with fossils. Yet, from the outside there’s no sign of the treasure within: no one has ever actually seen it.“We didn’t really know it was in the small piece of rock that we collected until it was CT scanned,” Dr Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh told me. “We were quite surprised to find Tiny hiding in the sediment - we still only know it from the 3D scan and the 3D print and so haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the actual fossil!” Continue reading...

Do all human languages share a universal grammar? And can science shed light on a schism that’s divided the world of linguistics for over half a century?Subscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & AcastIn the 1960s, world-renowned MIT linguist Professor Noam Chomsky declared his theory of Universal Grammar (UG). Often defined as “a system of categories, mechanisms and constraints, shared by all human languages and considered to be innate”, Chomsky’s idea that children are somehow born with access to rules of language is, to this day, vehemently refuted. But what’s the evidence for and against UG? And what are some of the alternatives? Continue reading...

Baby-talk and pet-talk might have a common purpose in attempting to engage with a non-speaking listener, say researchersPuppies prick up their ears to human cooing but adult dogs are unmoved by it, according to a new study.Scientists have found that humans use a sing-song cadence, similar to that used towards babies, when talking to dogs – regardless of the age of the animal. But the tone only draws the attention of puppies: older dogs showed no preference over normal human speech. Continue reading...

Monkey’s unusual behaviour is only the second recorded observation of sexual interaction between distantly related wild animalsA male snow monkey has been observed attempting to have sex with female sika deer on Japan’s Yakushima Island, in an unusual example of interspecies mating behaviour.Related: Sandpipers go the extra 8,000 miles to have as much sex as possible Continue reading...

Is there any scientific backing for the model’s claim that her pink wall is calming and suppresses appetite?The least likely of this January’s diets came, obliquely, from Kendall Jenner’s official app and was a colour rather than a book. In a post titled “The story behind my pink wall!” she explained the thinking behind the pink living room wall of her expensive Los Angeles home: “Baker-Miller Pink is the only color [sic] scientifically proven to calm you AND suppress your appetite. I was like, “I NEED this color [sic] in my house!”. I then found someone to paint the room and now I’m loving it!”. Continue reading...

Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) attached a camera to a female polar’s neck to study behaviour, hunting and feeding rates. The camera was intended to capture polar bears’ daily activities and help researchers better understand how they respond to declining levels in sea ice. The footage was uploaded to the USGS Facebook page on Monday but was filmed in April 2016

Dannii Minogue is brave to admit to using the beauty treatment at difficult times. Cosmetic procedures and the reasons we use them are still hard to talk aboutDannii Minogue has admitted to using Botox at difficult times in her life in a subconscious attempt to mask her feelings. Not only might she literally have been disabling her capacity to frown, she may also have been acting things out on her body in order to fend off her own emotions.Related: Is America developing a ‘crack-like addiction’ to Botox beauty? Continue reading...

Devil’s Dyke, West Sussex I carefully descend the muddy paths down to the bottom, where it is strangely quietThe small car parks and lay-bys are full, and cars are already beginning to line the sides of the road. The morning sunshine has drawn the crowds to this beauty spot on the top of the South Downs, with its panoramic views of Brighton and the Channel to the south, and the Sussex Weald to the north. A crow calls from the black skeleton of a tree, making itself heard above the noise of traffic and people.

Small birds were observed travelling to as many as 24 different breeding sites in Alaska within six weeks, further than flying from Paris to MoscowA bird smaller than a city pigeon has been recorded flying 13,000km (8,000 miles) in just one month to have sex with as many females as possible

New computer simulations counter widely-held belief that moon was formed from a single massive collisionThe moon may have formed after an ancient rocky bombardment that pummelled the Earth and sent trillions of tonnes of debris into orbit, scientists say.Computer simulations show that a flurry of impacts over 100m years could have kicked up enough material to form orbiting moonlets, which gradually merged to make the moon.

Risk of early death is as low for those who meet recommended activity targets in one or two sessions a week as it is for daily exercisers, study showsPeople who cram all their exercise into one or two sessions at the weekend benefit nearly as much as those who work out more frequently, researchers say.

Celebrity items tend to be relatively common artefacts yet attract phenomenal sums of money. Why?In November last year, the dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy sold for $4.81 million. In 2004, several pieces of Britney Spears’ used chewing gum sold for up to £100 a piece. There is even a market for the belongings of despised individuals: A bracelet Charles Manson made in prison is currently selling for $4,500.Some of these, like Marilyn Monroe’s dress, reflect a moment in history. But the attraction of others, such as Britney Spears’ chewing gum, are harder to explain. Celebrity items tend to be relatively common artefacts such as clothing or furniture. Their previous ownership rarely adds any functional value and they are often indistinguishable from other, seemingly identical items in the marketplace. Continue reading...

A new study suggests that liberals have the same confirmation biases as right-wing people. That’s why we all need to do a better job at listening to othersIt’s been a year of polarizing decisions. The US election, Brexit: a world of binary choices where everyone who disagrees is a hater, a loser, a deplorable, a fascist or a deplorable loser fascist hater. Worldwide, people – whether that’s “coastal metropolitan elite citizens” or “honest hardworking rural folk” – have retreated into their bubble, an echo chamber where they are only confronted with news which conforms with their existing worldview.The internet, initially envisioned as a wonderful tool which would bring us all closer together, has unfortunately been instrumental in this. From Senator Daniel Moynihan saying everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts, we’ve come to a world where wildly divergent facts are available, as succinctly shown by the Wall Street Journal’s “Blue Feed, Red Feed,” graphic.

Need for fillings could be reduced in future as study reveals natural ability of teeth to repair themselves can be enhanced using Alzheimer’s drugDentists have devised a treatment to regenerate rotten teeth that could substantially reduce the need for fillings in the future.The therapy works by enhancing the natural ability of teeth to repair themselves through the activation of stem cells in the soft pulp at the centre. Continue reading...

Miracles may not exist, but this year could see some key scientific breakthroughs. From dementia and zika to pain relief and customised drugs, here’s a look at what we may hear about this yearIn 2017, we can study the unimaginably small and share unimaginably vast amounts of data. But, as a GP involved in the day-to-day delivery of primary health care, I often wonder why, if so much is known, we can do so little? Why is there such a lag between the headline scientific discoveries and what a local GP can offer? Bridging that gap as speedily and effectively as possible is the aim of an emerging field of biomedical science called translational medicine. Scientists, healthcare professionals, pharma and funders are collaborating to translate science into solutions, or “bench to bedside”. The mantra for governments and agencies that fund health services across the world is “value-based care” – basically, payment by results. To be fair, it’s not all about cutting costs: the idea is to stop funding poor-value healthcare, and move towards an era of “precision medicine” in which your genomics, epigenomics (chemicals that tell the genome what to do), environmental exposure (eg pollution) and other factors guide the care you are offered. Continue reading...

Crop-breeding innovations are merely a short-term solution for falling yields. Only agricultural diversity can ensure food security and resilienceAs a new year dawns, it is hard not to be dazzled by the current pace of technological change in food and agriculture. Only last month, news emerged of a crop spray with the potential to increase the starch content in wheat grains, allowing for yield gains of up to 20%. This development comes hot on the heels of major breakthroughs in gene-editing technologies – using a powerful tool known as Crispr – over the course of 2016.

The AWAKE experiment at CERN made a breakthrough at the end of last year. A long-term technology-development project, its aim is to drag electrons through a plasma, behind a beam of protons, and provide a route to higher energies than the Large Hadron ColliderHigh-energy particle beams have multiple uses. In general, a controlled beam of high-energy particles can be used to smash things up – for example tumours or protons – or study them at high resolution, revealing the structure of molecules and materials, or indeed new fundamental physics such as the Higgs boson.The challenges involved in producing a useful beam are various, and depend on the type of particle and what you want to use the beam for. One common limitation is the size and cost of the machine, and another is the steepness of the accelerating voltage gradient. Continue reading...

From film to philosophy, from music to history and economics, masters of their crafts pick the five books they could not live withoutAuthor Alain de Botton is known for applying philosophical concepts to everyday life; his books include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004) and The Architecture of Happiness (2006). In 2008 he co-founded The School of Life, an innovative school with a focus on emotional intelligence. Continue reading...

Nearly 40 years since the first ‘test-tube baby’, how close are we to editing out all of our genetic imperfections – and should we even try to do so?Comfortably seated in the fertility clinic with Vivaldi playing softly in the background, you and your partner are brought coffee and a folder. Inside the folder is an embryo menu. Each embryo has a description, something like this:Embryo 78 – male

Nasa research shows that ice-free summers are now imminent, posing a peril to us allSomething is happening to the floating sea ice of the Arctic, other than the well-documented retreat in its surface coverage each summer. Scientists are finding that Arctic sea ice is getting younger and thinner, which is set to continue in March, when US research reveals the winter maximum, and September, when it reveals the summer minimum, making it more vulnerable to a catastrophic and unprecedented break-up.Nasa researchers have found that the thicker multi-year ice, which has survived several summer melt seasons, is being rapidly replaced by thinner, more ephemeral one-year ice formed over a single winter. This change makes the polar region increasingly vulnerable to storms that could smash their way through the final remnants of thinner, one-year sea ice, making a completely ice-free summer in the Arctic increasingly likely. Continue reading...

The origin of the universe, the distribution of galaxies, and the nature of black holes – it’s all in a day’s work for one of the most prominent scientists of all timeSubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & AcastOn 8 January 1942, Frank and Isobel Hawking celebrated the birth of their son, Stephen. 75 years later and Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most prominent scientists of all time. In a career spanning half a century, the cosmologist has notched up more than 150 scientific papers, a dozen or so books, and a string of TV and film appearances. It’s an achievement made all the more remarkable given his diagnosis with motor neurone disease at the age of 21 . Continue reading...

Asking someone what they are reading is like saying, ‘Who are you and who are you becoming?’I believe that everything you need to know you can find in a book. People have always received life-guiding wisdom from certain types of non-fiction, often from “self-help” books. But I have found that all sorts of books can carry this kind of wisdom. A random sentence in a thriller will give me unexpected insight. If I hadn’t read Killing Floor, the masterful 1997 novel that introduced the world to Jack Reacher, a former military cop turned vagrant, I never would have learned this valuable piece of wisdom: “Waiting is a skill like anything else.”I also believe that there is no book so bad that you can’t find something of interest in it. That, actually, is a paraphrase from the Roman lawyer Pliny the Younger, a sentiment later adopted by Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote. Admittedly, neither Pliny nor Cervantes were subject to some of the weakest “sex and shopping” books from the 1980s, but I still think it mostly holds true. You can learn something from the very worst books – even if it is just how crass and base, or boring and petty, or cruel and intolerant the human race can be. Continue reading...

Astronomers find evidence of black holes concealed behind clouds of gas and dust in two of Earth’s galactic neighboursMonster black holes may be lurking behind smokescreens in our cosmic backyard, say scientists. But they are still millions of light years away and much too distant to pose any threat to Earth.Astronomers have discovered evidence of supermassive black holes at the centre of two of our galactic neighbours. One, the galaxy NGC 1448, is “just” 38m light years from our own body of stars, the Milky Way. The other, IC 3639, is 170m light years away. Both are classified as “active” galaxies that emit intense levels of radiation. Continue reading...

A resilience research centre is investigating why some people recover from adversity, while others crumbleStanding in a cold cell in a former East German secret police prison, Gilbert Furian explains how he approached his imprisonment here in 1985. “I tried to numb myself,” he says. “ thought that if I reacted the way my heart wanted to, I would go crazy. So I put myself in a kind of standby mode.”Furian was working for a company that produced heating facilities when he was arrested at the age of 40. He recalls the fear he felt as four Stasi agents dressed in plain clothing turned up at his office and took him away. Though they didn’t specify the charge at the time, Furian knew it must be about the interviews he had conducted with punks in East Berlin a few months earlier. Continue reading...

Open letter: There is an important debate to be had about screen time, but we need quality research and evidence to support itMoral panic about the impact of new technologies on our behaviour and development is not new. Socrates railed against the dangers of writing for fear that it would nurture “forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories.” One source of contemporary anxiety is “screen time”. Recently, a letter signed by a group of writers, psychologists and charity heads raised concerns that childhood health and wellbeing in the UK is declining, in part due to “increasingly screen-based lifestyles.” The signatories argued that the policy response to these concerns, first raised over a decade ago, has been half-hearted and ineffective.As a group of scientists from different countries and academic fields with research expertise and experience in screen time, child development and evidence-based policy, we are deeply concerned by the underlying message of this letter. In our opinion, we need quality research and evidence to support these claims and inform any policy discussion. While we agree that the wellbeing of children is a crucial issue and that the impact of screen-based lifestyles demands serious investigation, the message that many parents will hear is that screens are inherently harmful. This is simply not supported by solid research and evidence. Furthermore, the concept of “screen time” itself is simplistic and arguably meaningless, and the focus on the amount of screen use is unhelpful. There is little evidence looking at the impact of the context of screen use, and the content that children encounter when using digital technologies – factors that may have a much greater impact than sheer quantity alone. Continue reading...

A nice kick-off to the New Year as a mysterious type of radio wave from deep space has been traced to a precise source for the first time. So-called fast radio bursts picked up in 2016 by a telescope in New Mexico likely emanated from a dwarf galaxy some 3bn light years from Earth. The new discovery will not settle the issue of exactly what’s causing the pulses, but it definitively eliminates several theories. Oh the excitement – it’s like Contact, but real! Space excitements aside, concerns are growing about the impact of air pollution on health. A study in the Lancet this week, which tracked 6.6 million people, estimates one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s among those living by busy roads could be linked to air and noise pollution. It’s by no means conclusive, but does link to other work on the impact of pollution on the brain and its processes. Don’t despair though, there’s some happier brain news with the surprise discovery that the tissues responsible for facial recognition keep growing into adulthood - unlike other areas which are fully formed in early life. It’s hoped that the finding will help scientists understand some aspects of the ageing process, but also what happens in disorders that make it hard for people to spot familiar faces.

Predicted to be one of the largest break-offs ever recorded, separation of iceberg could trigger breakup of most northern major ice shelf, Larsen CA giant iceberg, with an area equivalent to Trinidad and Tobago, is poised to break off from the Antarctic shelf.Related: British Antarctic research station to be moved due to deep crack in the ice Continue reading...

Scale of loneliness among over-60s revealed as Age UK develops scheme to provide support and companionshipHalf a million people over the age of 60 usually spend each day alone, with no interaction with others, and nearly half a million more commonly do not see or speak to anyone for five or six days a week, a poll suggests.Age UK, which commissioned the research, said the results highlighted a growing number of chronically lonely older people, which was placing increasing demand on health services. Continue reading...

Financial pressures could compromise quality and lead to increased risk of miscarriages of justice, says Dr Gillian TullyThe government will damage British justice if it inflicts further cuts on forensic science, the official regulator has said.

In frozen regions, ice can force the ground into mounds called pingos – conspicuous landmarks in flat landscapesOn a cold day, bare earth crunches underfoot. This is because ice needles have formed, pushing the soil upwards, and the pressure of a footstep crushes them down again. In frozen regions, a similar effect on a grand scale produces unusual hillocks known as pingos.Pingos can be as much as 50 metres high. They typically start in old lake beds. Freezing water forms into a lens shape and expands as it becomes ice. As more water is added and the ice mass becomes larger, the ground above is gradually forced upwards into a mound. This can grow at the rate of a few centimetres a year. Continue reading...

New findings challenge our understanding of how the brain maturesFaces are important to us. From the moment we are are born, we prefer to look at faces than at other, inanimate objects, and, being social animals, we encounter faces every day of our lives. The face is the first thing we look to when identifying other people; faces also convey emotions, informing us of peoples’ mood, and from them we can usually determine a person’s sex and, sometimes, roughly how old they are. Eye movements can also reveal to us something about another person’s intentions.Related: How your eyes betray your thoughts Continue reading...

Unlike other brain regions, which are fully formed in early life, tissue responsible for telling faces apart keeps expanding after childhoodThe lumps of human brain tissue that help us tell one face from another grow all the way into adulthood, according to scientists who made the surprise discovery.Until now it was thought that brain tissue growth halted in early life, with the organ adapting in later life by tweaking the connections between its neurons. Continue reading...

MoD contract aims to have army and navy using technology by mid-2020s and air force by mid-2030sThe prospect of UK forces being armed with laser weapons has taken a step closer to reality with the awarding of a £30m Ministry of Defence contract.The deal, announced on Thursday, is to assess the potential of the laser as a weapon, with the aim of having a product in place by the mid-2020s. Continue reading...

Climate sceptic journalist’s claim that marine life has nothing to fear from rising ocean acidity levels is not misleading but ‘comment’, says IpsoA magazine article claiming “marine life has nothing whatsoever to fear from ocean acidification” has been deemed neither misleading nor inaccurate by the UK’s press regulator.The feature, written by journalist and climate-change sceptic James Delingpole, appeared in the Spectator under the headline “Ocean acidification: yet another wobbly pillar of climate alarmism”. Continue reading...

There’s a lot that experienced researchers can learn from their former newbie selves. Here’s eight pointersA vivid memory of my own first week as a PhD student: overhearing the senior members of the lab talk about the scientist in charge – a frighteningly brilliant woman they joked was “out of touch” in the lab.I was shown – somewhat reverentially, with a warning to steer clear – a tidy, approximately two-foot square section at the end of one lab bench dedicated to her infrequent forays to the coal face. The boss reserved a few hours a month from writing successful grants and high-profile papers for risky, exploratory experiments that allowed her to keep her hand in, generate new lines of enquiry, and keep an eye on our wayward exploits. Continue reading...

Andrea Leadsom blames the EU for ‘holding us back’. But it’s encouraging agribusiness to flourish at the expense of small farmers that must changeIt’s not hard to warm up an audience by promising to scrap irritating European regulations. That’s exactly what Andrea Leadsom, the environment secretary, focused on at the Oxford Farming Conference yesterday morning, promising to ditch “rules that hold us back”. Top of Leadsom’s list are EU billboards that spoil the countryside, and greater “common sense” on what constitutes “a bush, a hedge or a tree”.Related: Andrea Leadsom promises Brexit bonfire of regulation for farmers Continue reading...

Study tracking 6.6 million people estimates one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s among those living by busy roads could be linked to air and noise pollutionPeople living near a busy road have an increased risk of dementia, according to research that adds to concerns about the impact of air pollution on human health.Roughly one in 10 cases of Alzheimer’s in urban areas could be associated with living amid heavy traffic, the study estimated – although the research stopped short of showing that exposure to exhaust fumes causes neurodegeneration. Continue reading...

Research shows if a healthy embryo is transferred alongside one of poorer quality then chance of pregnancy is reduced by 27%

‘Fast radio bursts’, discovered only a decade ago, were found likely coming from dwarf galaxy about 3bn light years from Earth but cause remains uncertainA mysterious type of radio wave from deep space, discovered only a decade ago, has been traced to a precise source for the first time, astronomers said on Wednesday.So-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) picked up in 2016 by a telescope in New Mexico likely emanated from a dwarf galaxy some 3bn light years from Earth, the scientists reported in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

Ultraviolet radiation can have huge effects on our planet’s climate, but what has it done the past? The fossil record can tell us about UV through the study of pollen and spores

Historian Michael Scott says series builds most complete picture yet of ‘jigsaw’ of underground worldThe historian Michael Scott’s worst moment in the miles of tunnels deep under Naples, which he has been exploring for a BBC documentary, came not from fear of earthquake or volcanic eruption, nor among crumbling Roman quarries or the eerie rusting remains of cars seized and dumped under Mussolini’s regime. However, he was extremely unhappy when, in a cramped, airless space heated by volcanic gases, reached by a narrow, 2,000-year-old passage, he met a scorpion.“It was a small scorpion, but it was a very confined space, and all I thought I could remember about scorpions is that the small ones are more venomous. I stayed very, very still and tried to look unthreatening until it went away.” Continue reading...

Shrewsbury We walked to the grave of Mary Webb and found the fungi growing around her neighbours’ headstonesThe toadstools opened from the graveyard like fleshy satellite dishes – ears of the necropolis listening to the living. We were in Shrewsbury cemetery to pay our respects at the turning year to those we knew there. The newer part had serried ranks of black or white marble headstones between drives, their funerary decorations modest symbols of grief and remembrance in a utilitarian order to keep the public face of death tidy.The older part of the cemetery belonged to a much more Gothic sensibility: the graves mostly Victorian to the 1930s, their mossy stones listing on undulating ground and scattered randomly under trees, separated by meadow grasses.

It takes a brave man to take a shot at a national treasure, and they don’t come any more treasured than David Attenborough, so hats off to Martin Hughes-Games for bravery (Why Planet Earth II should have been taxed, 2 January). But I fear he’s wrong. He says programmes like Planet Earth II lull us “into a false sense of security” as wildlife species are decimated across the globe. That is almost certainly correct, but one thing we’ve learned from last year’s EU referendum is that ordinary people just don’t listen to “experts” lecturing them about unfolding, manmade disasters. Planet Earth II, with its beauty and grandeur, and, yes, entertainment value, takes a subtle approach worthy of the most sophisticated advertising campaign: it says, look at this marvellous planet, do you really want to allow its destruction?