Mark said:

"The most difficult aspect of doing scientific research is not allow your personal bias to influence how you look at the actual data.  It's extremely difficult to avoid.  You appear to want something here so much that you are now invoking this argument above which does not, nor can it support a single claim you are making.  M"

Actually, this is what we call "speculation" and we put it into the "discussion" part of our papers.  If you've ever read the poem "The Blind Men and the Elephant" by John G. Saxe, you'll know it describes research perfectly.  (I copied a link to a reading of it here, because I love this poem...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVBQefNXIw).

We are allowed to speculate, as long as we make it clear that we aren't claiming to be right until the evidence supports us.  We have to be very careful about that!!!

This whole neonic issue is very hot, obviously, and there are people here on both sides of it...some think neonics are so wonderful we should make breakfast drinks out of them, others think they signal the end of the universe.  Of course, we still don't have enough of the puzzle pieces to claim either camp is right (probably neither one is).  The scientific method has helped us enormously in this regard...avoiding bias.  But people misinterpret, misrepresent, and generally spin the results in every direction imaginable (and some manipulate funding, sorry to say, to suit their own opinions).

We should be free to speculate.  But keep your hat on and think for yourself.  I try hard not to be biased but I'm just like everyone else.

Christina

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