Benveniste Replies

It was rather surprising that such large space has been devoted by The Scientist to the “affaire Benveniste.” Yet one cannot find the point of view of the major actor of this comedy, except by indirect quotation. I do not wish to prolong the controversy much more, since these data are either true or not true. To clearly see the data, a scientist need only calmly read our paper in Nature and the subsequent Nature report. The controversy exists only because the data are unexplainable. Had they been obtained at regular ligand concentration, their validity would not have been disputed even for one minute.

What is really interesting about these events is that they reveal behavior strange for scientists who should embody objectivity. That any real scientist on Earth could take seriously the Nature report is beyond my understanding. Not only the composition of the [“investigating”] team but...

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