North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mangodance <bmn@iglou.com>]

Alan Haigh wrote:

> I reckon researchers in general are like all people in general.  We tend 
> to exaggerate the importance of our own work- only researchers are under 
> even more pressure to sell their "discoveries" as something dramatic and 
> in the glysphosphate nonsense the researcher heralded his results 
> as "shocking".  That description is so over the top I had to laugh.  
> This is a man undoubtedly hot on the trail of funding for his next 
> brilliant experiment.  How 'bout a quart of motor oil in the fish tank.  
> My god, the devastation to those poor little tadpoles would be horrifying!

Now Alan, I'd have thought that inflammatory titles and over-the-top 
knee jerk reactions were a thing of the past.  Stephen's quote, "...but 
the reporting, as science reporting by non-scientists often is, was 
over-simplified and lacked specificity." is dead-on.  As one of those 
who would be damned, I can tell you that in 25+ years, I have NEVER been 
quoted well by the media, nor have I had a single re-telling of a story 
represented in the way in which it was offered.  I don't know about the 
case here as I have not seen the original work.  But this list has 
already seen a knee-jerk reaction and well...talk about over-the-top.


...yours from the fires....