> As with many published studies, 
> one cannot go from the abstracts 
> and snippets alone.  I find that I 
> must often carefully reanalyze 
> their data myself.

In the rare case that an alternate explanation can be drawn from data
published in a mainstream refereed journal, it is most often the case that
the reader has made a basic error, or lacks proper context.  There have been
rare cases of massive and obvious errors in print, such as the Lu paper from
Harvard, published in the "Bulletin of Insectology", but these have been
critiqued by wide consensus that ranged beyond any single online discussion
group, and the dead give-away was that the paper was published in a hitherto
unknown journal.

> I have questions on certain
> aspects of methodology, with 
> which I've questioned one of 
> the referenced authors.  
> Something didn't jibe as far as 
> the quantification of virus presence.

In the even more rare case that the layperson contacts the author, the
author is highly likely to bend over backwards to placate the layperson,
even when the critique is baseless, as the goal is to end the conversation,
quickly and pleasantly.  (The stock answer is "Gosh, that's interesting,
I'll have to think about that.") The author's work has already satisfied his
credentialed peers, and he wishes to avoid what we all eventually experience
- the layperson who becomes a "stalker" of sorts on this issue or that.

The problem is that the interaction misleads the layperson who questions the
conclusions drawn, giving them the false impression that they have found a
powerful refutation, one that the author admits as compelling.  The
layperson then misleads other laypeople, saying things like this:

> this is to me a questionable conclusion

If a conclusion is to be questioned, the specifics should be presented in
detail to support the questioning.




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