Letters: Limit reductionism, not science

THE MILLENNIUM has arrived when two Fellows from opposite poles of the Royal Society squabble in public (Letters, 24 January)! The malign fiction that a seamless garment covers both physics and biology has inhibited for centuries the full exploration of reality.

Of course, Brian Josephson, a Nobel laureate in physics, commands greater credence than Lewis Wolpert ("Under the microscope", 17 January). But it was a pity that Professor Josephson chose to attack the second rather than the first of the topics on which the craftily disingenuous Professor Wolpert said he "would like help". While we would all appreciate guidance from physicists on the "limits to reductionism", the truth is that Wolpert will never accept that it has any.

DH TOMPSETT

Henley on Thames, Oxon