As a physicist, I never cease to be amazed by the miraculous insights that continue to be garnered via scientific exploration (Pluto: the furthest frontier, 16 July). To successfully send a spacecraft billions of miles away to photograph and study a tiny, forbidding, cold and alien body demonstrates how far the human race has come. If only our leaders would set their sights on furthering the human race rather than destroying it, one could only imagine how far we may travel in the future.
Dr Michael Pravica
Henderson, Nevada, United States
• So Adam Boulton thinks Nick Robinson will add something to the Today programme when he takes over from Jim Naughtie (Report, 10 July). He certainly will. Another privately educated presenter. Robinson replaces state school-educated Naughtie, just as privately educated Mishal Husain effectively replaced state-school Evan Davis. Only John Humprys to go before they have a clean sweep.
Martin Pilgrim
Canterbury
• Sean Ingle’s article (Sport, 13 July) on the decline in cricket viewing figures on Sky makes many good points: its coverage is indeed excellent, which a terrestrial broadcaster would struggle to match in its breadth. However, had it not been for a purely chance encounter with a BBC-screened Test in 1977, I would have been denied almost four decades of pleasure from a game that I would have been unlikely to seek out.
Lou George
Kendal, Cumbria
• Without wishing to turn the Guardian’s letters page into pedantry corner, the actual headline referred to in David McKie’s letter (15 July) is “Queen in brawl at Palace”, above a report written by Albert Barham on the Crystal Palace versus Blackpool match from 2 September 1971.
Robert Clark
Shoeburyness, Essex
• During the cold war I knew what “hawks” and “doves” were, but realised I needed to improve my knowledge of the terminology when I saw the Guardian headline “CND ducks call for hardline on Russia”.
John Coatman
Sheffield
