Sir, – Having worked for GlaxoSmithKline before entering the Church, I’ve been fascinated to watch the efforts to discover new antibiotics.
Bacterial resistance is soaring worldwide and unless new drugs are found, resistant infections could kill 10 million people annually by 2050, relegating the likes of climate change to the back burner.
Artificial intelligence has long been employed in the search but for the first time it has now identified completely new kinds of antibiotics from scratch, without using any previous human assumptions.
The successful MIT team was led by the brilliant synthetic geologist Professor Jim Collins, who gained his PhD from Oxford University in 1990.
The new antibiotic is called halicin – after HAL, the super-computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
It has succeeded when used against such superbugs as pseudomonas, mycobacterium tuberculosis, C diff and A baumanii.
At a time of scary news about pandemics it’s good to hear that human ingenuity can still press the boundaries.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Encourage use of log burners
Sir, – I read the articles on the banning of open fires with coal or wood from February 2021 due to carcinogenic particles in the atmosphere.
This has to be the biggest load of misinformation for a decade since the crash. Burning coal produces all the bad things climate change preach against (smokeless a little less) however burning logs is carbon neutral and the particulates have never been proven or considered to be cancer producing.
I burn five tonnes of mixed soft wood and hard wood from a local supplier for six months every year.
I heat my home with this (including an air duct) other than a few hours in the morning when I use LPG.
The logs are all wind blown and would be left to rot, producing methane and CO2 if not harvested.
Where do our governments get their advice? Not from serious professionals I believe.
I suggest coal is taxed to become more expensive while log burners should be supported and encouraged.
George Sangster.
Woodlands,
Logie, Craigo.
Battling against Mother Nature
Sir, – When is this global warming nonsense going to stop?
The ice caps have been melting for the last 10,000 years, since the end of the last Ice Age.
In my lifetime in Scotland the winters are getting better. There is no more waking up to the trudge through feet of snow.
Before we had washing machines and tumble dryers my mother had to put washing out on the line and we brought it in frozen solid, hard as a board.
In the steel houses in Sauchenbush in Kirkcaldy we regularly woke up to ice inside and outside of the glass windows.
What we are experiencing is Mother Nature.
Our planet is a living entity. Destroy the environment, as we have seen in Africa, and the Sahara desert marches south.
Our politicians talk endlessly about nothing. What needs done they don’t do.
We need a tidal power station barrage at the mouth of the Forth that will produce electricity forever.
Every other system is worn out in the lifetime of a man.
We need to get rid of diesel buses in the town and electrify the railways.
As for alternative fuel for ships? I don’t see any of the alternatives as goers.
What could be done is make the diesel engine more efficient by having a look at the diesel steam units of the past.
Under the SNP it has been reported that education has suffered.
We need to stop free university education for degree courses that are more or less a hobby and instead use the money to train people to help with society needs.
John G Phimister.
63 St Clair Street,
Kirkcaldy.
IndyRef behind huge divisions
Sir, – A YouGov poll shows that 57% of Scots believe that constitutional wrangling has split Scotland in two, with 47% of the view that we will remain divided forever.
Half of those voting believe that the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon are responsible for this, with 26% believing that we all bear some responsibility for it.
Who would have imagined, 10 years ago, that Scotland would be as deeply divided as it is now?
The long campaign period for the 2014 referendum, and the refusal of the SNP to accept the result of that vote and to campaign incessantly for another, are clearly responsible for this.
If only we could go back 10 years and start again!
Jill Stephenson.
Glenlockhart Valley,
Edinburgh.
New message boy for PM
Sir, – What a mean minded letter from Derek Farmer (Experience for the job lacking, Courier, February 19).
He apparently considers that no politician can hold a ministerial brief at the age of 29, obviously ignoring the fact that ministers make political decisions based on advice from qualified civil servants and other advisers and researchers.
New finance secretary Kate Forbes was employed as an accountant in between a BA at Cambridge and an MSc at Edinburgh.
A determination to do what is right for the country can be much more valuable than engrained professional viewpoints.
Mr Farmer should perhaps be more concerned about the suitability of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now that Sajid Javid has discovered his backbone and decided that he is not going to be reduced to the status of prime minister’s message boy it behoves us to look at his successor, Rishi Sunak.
On the web page of The Spectator on February 17, political journalist Robert Peston reminded us that Sunak worked for two hedge fund managers who made the biggest profits out of the rise and subsequent fall of the pound. Financial expertise, but certainly not in the national interest.
A measure of how compliant to Johnson he will be was shown at the televised first meeting of the new-look Cabinet.
In an embarassing teacher-pupil session, all the members chorused the answers to the prime minister’s questions.
Seated at Johnson’s left shoulder and beaming broadly, Sunak and the rest shout out 40 when asked “how many hospitals are we going to build?”.
Official figures confirm that the government has put in place funding for building projects at six hospitals between now and 2025.
Ken Guild.
76 Brown Street,
Broughty Ferry.
Store still going after 168 years
Sir, – I was sad to read of the closure of yet another well-known name in the world of field sports with PD Malloch disappearing into the mists of time (Fresh blow for Perth as another shop to close, Courier, February 14).
However, in her summing up , owner Elaine Buntin forgot Blairgowrie where fishing tackle etc is still available at James Crockart & Son, a shop established almost 170 years ago in 1852.
J Christie.
The Halfway House,
By Blairgowrie.
