“The future of our planet is in the balance – 2015 is make or break” (In Focus, last week, pages 34-35) referred to science tackling the “super-wicked” problems of climate change. The piece did not acknowledge that the concept of the “super-wicked” problem (and associated dilemmas annotated in the piece) was first identified by Kelly Levin, Benjamin Cashore, Graeme Auld and Steven Bernstein in a Policy Sciences paper published in June 2012.
Our description of dolphin sonar (Tech Monthly, 8 Nov) needs a little clarification. The dolphin uses its nasal passages to make high-frequency clicks that it sends through its forehead, focused in a beam. When the sound hits an object, it returns as an echo, absorbed through the dolphin’s jaw. Fatty tissue conducts the sound to the dolphin’s inner ear, which exchanges nerve impulses with its brain to interpret the object’s size.
“Master strategist or political blunderer?” (In Focus, last week, page 30) said incorrectly that chancellor, George Osborne, was booed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. An accompanying fact box, charting the chancellor’s career, had it right: he was booed a month later, when presenting medals at the Paralympic Games.
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk or telephone 020-3353 4656
