Getting to the very bottom of poo cubes | Brief letters | World news

Perhaps your article 10 of the most tranquil places in the UK (31 January) could have been be more aptly titled “Where you used to find peace and solitude before we published this”. Quiet please indeed.
Pete Bibby
Sheffield

• I am sometimes a little self-conscious about how niche my research is (the Youth Hostels Association in the 1930s, in case anyone was wondering). So it’s reassuring to read about people intrigued by the anomalous shape of wombat faeces (Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo, 29 January).
Michael Cunningham
Wolverhampton

• The science behind the shape of wombat faeces is very interesting. I was told many years ago, and with some authority, that the reason human faeces were shaped as they were was so that “your bum doesn’t close with a bang”.
Richard Barnard
Wivenhoe, Essex

• String quartets playing pop/rock music isn’t a particularly new phenomenon (Bridgerton inspires rise in demand for classical pop song covers, 26 January). The Kronos Quartet recorded Purple Haze in 1986, and the Balanescu Quartet (including myself, to declare an interest) recorded songs by Kraftwerk in 1992.
Bill Hawkes
Canterbury, Kent

• Alongside Dr Mervyn Bryn-Jones (Letters, 29 January), I too have come to terms with uptick, but downtick just makes me cross.
Gary Greatorex
London