CORRESPONDENCE

covers the whole field. And it would in any and there was no start or finish, so it was Women winners case have been difficult to transfer papers not easy to tell when the race was over. destined for publication in the journal to The connection between caucus, politics3 of new, more specialized ones, because of and what we now term chaotic behaviour the problem of building up subscriptions would have added piquancy. SIR-In my review of Grand Obsession: from scratch: our evidence was that con­ NEVILLEW. GOODMAN and Her World (Nature 343, tributors would simply refuse. University of Bristol, 707; 1990), I said that Marie Curie was the That is why we started two quarterly Department ofAnaesthetics, only woman to have won the Nobel prize adjunct journals in key growth areas Southmead Hospital, for . I should have known better, (materials in medicine and materials in Southmead Road, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK and now I do - thanks to all those who electronics), both of which are part of the have written to me. Maria Goeppert­ main subscription and available separ­ 1. Ochs, T.L. Nature343, 303 (1990). Mayer won the prize in 1963 for the shell ately for those with specialist interests. 2. Concise Oxford Dictionary, 7th Edn (1982). 3. Gardner, M. (Ed.) The Annotated Lewis Carrol/ (Har• theory of the . That had to be reflected in an increased mondsworth, Penguin, 1970). JOHN GALLOWAY subscription rate, although we did not in Cancer Research Campaign, practice pass on all the extra costs to 2 Carlton House Terrace, subscribers. Problems London SW1 Y 5AR, UK Like other librarians faced with the SIR-I am less inclined than is J.Z. Young need to manage budgets that are declining to be grateful for the latest lucubrations of SIR-John Galloway's book review needs in real terms, Winship blames publishers Sir John Eccles, or to feel that they deal some correction. for increasing the size and price of jour­ with "serious and difficult problems of (1) Marie Curie is not "the only woman nals. He forgets that, to survive, and philosophy" ("A change of ever to have won the prize for physics". publishers have to be responsive to the mind", review of Evolution of the Brain: won the 1963 needs of the scientific community, which Creation of the Self, Nature 344, 117; Nobel physics prize. in some subjects means providing sup­ 1990). (2) "No woman other than a Curie had plementary journals for the increasing They deal with Eccles's religious incli­ won the prize for science until Dorothy number of good papers that are offered. nations, for example: " ... I am con­ Hodgkin in 1964" is also erroneous. Apart ANTHONY WATKINSON strained to attribute the uniqueness of the from Mayer, won the Nobel Chapman & Hall, Self or Soul to a supernatural spiritual prize for medicine in 1947 with her hus­ 11 New Fetter Lane, creation , , . each Soul is a new Divine band Carl Corio London £C4P 4££, UK creation which is implanted into the grow­ (3) So far, there have been 21 women ing fetus at some time between conception Nobel prizewinners: and birth". Parliament, now exercising Chemistry - Marie Curie, Irene Joliot Random chaos itself over a similar conundrum, would Curie and Dorothy Hodgkin; Physics - SIR-Thomas Ochs' asks too much when doubtless be interested to know exactly Marie Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer; he requires authors to be as stringent in when this miracle occurs. At 14 weeks? 18 Medicine - Gerty Cori, Rosalyn Yallow, the use of 'random' as in the use of weeks? 22, 24, less than 14, more than 24? Barbara McClintock, Rita Levi Montalci­ 'chaotic'. It is impossible to prove that Can Eccles be a little more specific? ni and Gertrude Elion; Literature - something is truly random. For any And does he believe, as Young indic­ Grazia Deledda, Sigrid Undset, Pearl system, it is always possible that a dis­ ates he does, that all mammals and birds Buck, Gabriela Mistral and Nelly Sachs; covery will lead to predictability, even if have 'souls'? But not reptiles, amphibia, Peace - Bertha von Suttner, Jane this is only partial. For many systems, that fish, bees and cephalopods? Addams, Emily Balch, Mairead Corrigan, of tossing an unbiased coin being one, it is Young asks at what stage of human Elizabeth Williams, Mother Teresa and only the limits of observation that prevent evolution did hominids first receive their Alva Mydral. prediction. The only logical conclusion of souls. The matter is in fact covered by the SACHI SRI KANTHA Ochs's argument is that random must, in 1950 papal encylical Humani Generis, Department of all its uses, be preceded by 'apparently' or which explains that the soul was acquired and , prefixed by 'pseudo-'. during the early Pleistocene, 800,000 Medical College of Pennsylvania, What puzzles me is why the word years ago, apparently in Kenya. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19129, USA 'chaos' was chosen. The dictionary mean­ While Eccles's meditations on these ing is 'utter confusion", which dynamic "serious and difficult problems", at £30 a chaos plainly is not. Explaining chaos to meditation, are no doubt of interest to Material increases those who know nothing about it is not Eccles, they are of no concern to anyone SIR - Under the heading "Hidden made easier by such a commonplace else. increases", Ian Winship (Nature 342,730; word. At the least, spelling it 'kaos' would I have, as you may recall, brought mat­ 1989) complained about publishers adding have helped but even better would have ters of this kind to your urgent attention new sections to an established periodical been a word from a nonsense poem, or on two previous occasions (Nature 323, and the consequent increase in price. In something similar. The found 754; 1986 and 338, 536; 1989). Questions the case of Journal of Materials Science, 'quark' when naming subatomic particles; of one's religious convictions do not con­ which he mentions, there was nothing it is too late now, but 'caucus' might have cern Me but their espousal within these hidden; information about the changes done instead of 'chaos', from Lewis Car­ pages does, this because, although cer­ was circulated at the usual time in the roll's caucus-race. This required a race­ tainly not a jealous God, I am a serious­ preceding autumn. course in a sort of circle whose exact shape minded One. Accordingly, I do not feel Our reason for adding the new sections did not matter; the competitors were they form a necessary adjunct to scientific was that research in materials science is placed "along the course, here and there"; methods or attitudes. burgeoning, and that the increasing GOD number of good papers being submitted Letters submitted for Correspondence (As revealed to Ralph Estling) for publication would soon have led to a should be typed, double-spaced, on one The Old Parsonage, serious backlog. We did not want to split side ofthe paper only. 0 Dowlish Lake, the journal because its point is that it IIminster, Somerset TA19 aNY 582 NATURE· VOL 344 . 12 APRIL 1990