As I read the discussion regarding the nature of the topics and how the
topics are handled, I find my self asking, so what does informed discussion
look like truly among people of science?

While I am no man of intellectual thought as are some, I ask what did the
discussions of say Newton, Franklin, Bell, tesla, and many more engineers
and scientist and innovators look like?

I wonder how many turned into rude and make even physical fighting or
debating across the pub table etc?

I am not condoning this behavior but it seems to me anyone who spends their
life on a subject will rightfully so be pationate about it and many time
must propose ideas that others will see as uninformed and preposterous. But
how many of these very ideas  (like the earth is round instead of flat),
actually either turned out right or turned into the most important thing
for human society such as electricity...

There are many examples of scientist and inventors who crossed the
"informed" line of their day with their theorys and ideas.

So to me it begs the question can there truly be informed scientific
discussion without discussing what seems like silly ideas etc at times and
can there be such discussions without passionate and sometimes argumentive
tones?

Just my two cents as I sit here pondering the issues at hand with Bee-L and
what would be lost for thousands across the world if it were to stop and
become just another database of papers...

Doug

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