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 *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html