Dear Daniel, I could not disagree with you more. As scientists it falls to us to support our colleagues (from whatever other discipline) when they provide evidence that has profound ramifications for humanity.
Would we hesitate to stand by colleagues who (for example) demonstrate the efficacy of vaccination, or that the earth really is an oblate spheroid? If me being a signatory (not author, important distinction, as noted above) to this helps get this message across in even a small way, then it is 2 minutes of my time well spent. As for whether or not scientists from one discipline can make a valuable and informed contributions to another, I hope Kevin Cowtan won't mind that I suggest you take a look at his work on climate modelling. Dave -- Dr David C. Briggs Senior Laboratory Research Scientist Signalling and Structural Biology Lab The Francis Crick Institute London, UK == about.me/david_briggs From: Edwin Pozharski Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 06:34 Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Problem in real space - please sign & invite other scientists to sign this letter To: [email protected] Dear Daniel, with all due respect, I do believe that you are making several mistakes in your argument. English is not my native tongue, but I suspect that there is a substantial difference between "author" and "signatory". What people are asked to do here is essentially to sign a petition, not to become a co-author in traditional sense. There were 39 signatories to the US Constitution, certainly not all of them are considered its authors. Furthermore, most structural biologists are trained scientists and it is rather routine part of our job to evaluate research we are not exactly experts in. I am not a climatologist, but I do take exception to your assertion that I am therefore automatically too ignorant to understand basic concepts that pertain to global warming and climate change. A climatologist wouldn't instantly know what B-factors are, but is certainly capable of understanding the concept if you explain it. Using physical science and its data to arrive at conclusions regarding religion, politics and economic theory (!) is not at all embarrassing. (And letter in question hardly does any "preaching", certainly not about religion) As for your demand that people stick to structural biology, may I suggest that your reaction to exactly one entry in ccp4bb that elicited almost zero follow up (until your comment) feels a bit overblown? If you strongly disagree with Dr Ripple and his colleagues, that is fine, but why shouldn't people at ccp4bb occasionally share somewhat orthogonal information? None of us want to see inappropriate content, I am just not sure why you feel that this specific post is something that needs to be purged. Just to be clear - your post does create an impression that you might hold the opinion that, as they say, "global warming is a hoax". Please, let's not have further discussion online on the specifics, but I think it might be helpful if you could confirm or deny this. Cheers, Ed. --- "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" Evelyn Beatrice Hall, "The Friends of Voltaire" On Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 9:23 PM Daniel M. Himmel, Ph. D. <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Dear colleagues, Since when does being a structural biologist make us experts in climatology, and isn't it a breach of basic ethical practice and professionalism as scientists to sign on as authors to an article for which we have neither contributed research nor intellectual content of the manuscript? Are we now going against the standard to which the editorial policies of leading reputable biological journals normally hold us as authors? And doesn't it hurt the credibility of a serious scientific article, its authors, and the journal in which it appears if biologists with no expertise in earth science/astrophysics appear without humility as authors to such an article? Are you not embarrassed to put your name to an article that uses physical sciences data as a platform for preaching about religion, politics, and economic theory ("...social and economic justice for all...")? Does it not upset you when someone unfamiliar with structural biology draws firm conclusions that heavily depend on the part of a structural model that has high B-factors? So why are you unconcerned that you may be guilty of an analogous error when, as structural biologists, you put your name to a controversial interpretation of selected earth science data? See, for example, https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2017/02/24/living-warm-peak-ice-ages/<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.agu.org%2Fgeospace%2F2017%2F02%2F24%2Fliving-warm-peak-ice-ages%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C6247493e822842410b5b08d725f9318c%7C4eed7807ebad415aa7a99170947f4eae%7C0%7C0%7C637019624527182216&sdata=DEgfL4kIKmMNgUvWkFp%2FCUj%2Fmaj%2BRJ2L0GcYo0z0D1c%3D&reserved=0> about the ways climate data can be misinterpreted by choosing too tight a time interval, and lets stick to structural biology and allied sciences in the CCP4 list, please. Respectfully, Daniel M. 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