More hot air from scientists who persist in believing that they are "special" and deserve special rights.1 Sigh ...
This has nothing to do with the public interest or the "sophistication of the scientific method;" rather, it is an expression of status anxiety in a group of people who, not so long ago (say, in the 1950s) were still notables but of late have become proletarianized. Specifically, if egregious violations of public health and safety rules are noticed by an employee who later becomes a whistleblower (such as Francis Doussal in France) and isn't protected, why do scientists deserve special status? Why should a scientist enjoy protection but not, say, a clerk or a foreman? This is obscene. All this special pleading is becoming rather annoying.
Olivier Lefevre, PhD
Bioinformatics Group
Biocrates Life Sciences
Innsbruck, Austria
lefevre@acm.org
