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From: diaz@aecom.YU.EDU (Dizzy Dan)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Strange results in Nature article (fallout...)
Summary: Hooray for Nature -- controversial science should not
	 be censored
Keywords: skepticism debunking pseudoscience
Message-ID: <1931@aecom.YU.EDU>
Date: 1 Aug 88 01:07:37 GMT
References: <1911@aecom.YU.EDU> <6445@megaron.arizona.edu> <492@metapsy.UUCP> <19778@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: Graduate School of Hard Knocks
Lines: 31

In article <19778@cornell.UUCP>, 
dietz@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Paul F. Dietz) writes:

> Nature should not have accepted this paper.  By doing so, it has
> given homeopathy undeserved recognition, and has tarnished its
> own reputation.  In the unlikely event the findings are not the result
> of error or fraud, publication in a lesser journal would have
> sufficed.  Doing so would not have attracted as much media attention.

Nature was placed in a difficult position.  It held on to Beneviste, et
al.'s paper for some time while the experiments were repeated around the
world.  As I've pointed out in another posting, the suggestion that
water molecules are being imprinted with an image of the degranulating
antibody is hard to believe.  I do, however, salute Nature for
publishing the paper and tackling the issue of homeopathy once and for
all.  We shouldn't base the acceptance of scientific papers on our
concerns about its interpretation.  If Beneviste's results are
earthshaking, then its wonderful, if they are artefactual or fraudulent
we will soon find out.  Science is served either way.  

I respect the way Nature serves as a sounding board for all sorts of
views.  The journal publishes material submitted by creationists, people
who believe life came here on an asteroid, people who believe
Archaeopteryx is a hoax, as well as people who believe water has a
memory.  I may disagree with many of them, but better that they debate
their views in an open scientific arena than moan about how the
scientific establishment refuses to give them an ear.  Hooray for
Nature and John Maddox.

-- 
      dn/dx      Dept Molecular Biology   diaz@aecom.yu.edu
     Dizzy Dan   Al Einstein's Med School  Big Bad Bronx, NY