Practical inspiration (2 of 2)

Chris Ormell's "Ends and meanings" (Letters, 20 September) on Martin Willis' "Curiosity knows no bounds" (Features, 13 September) proposes science as an activity that tries to uncover the causes of things. Would not a more reasonable description of science be an activity that attempts to uncover regularities in the Universe?

Thus, two unlike magnetic poles attract, whoever repeats the experiment, but physicists don't worry too much about whether the cause is a subtle movement of atoms or the hidden work of the Devil herself. Practical scientists' main concern is the happenings in the experiment: they establish what is.

Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton