> Rabbits will be found on both sides, no matter how good the fence is on average.

Great image! However, I worry less over bad science because the scientific community tends to be self-policing. Nobody really wants to be flat wrong there. The general public, on the other hand, likes to be anesthetized and they tend to avoid serious thought. 

One bad scientific paper can outweigh thousands of good ones, for them. There are still people who refuse vaccines because they think they are somehow linked to autism. There are still people that think neonics cause CCD, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, and they point to one or two bad papers that prove if you poison bees, they WILL die.

Here at Bee-L we have ruthlessly trashed bad ideas, whether they come from bad science or from the folly of "common sense". My friend Al Einstein supposedly said: "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." Another friend told me I should carefully weigh what I say because I am regarded as an authority.

To which I replied, I am no authority. I value my freedom to say what I feel, more than my reputation as some sort of expert. Such a stance has cost me plenty, but things that matter such as integrity, the pursuit of truth, and an opportunity to be creative are worth far more to me than whatever I may have lost in the process. 

Pete

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