Dear Daniel,
with all due respect, I do believe that you are making several mistakes in
your argument.
English is not my native tongue, but I suspect that there is a substantial
difference between "author" and "signatory". What people are asked to do
here is essentially to sign a petition, not to become a co-author in
traditional sense. There were 39 signatories to the US Constitution,
certainly not all of them are considered its authors.
Furthermore, most structural biologists are trained scientists and it is
rather routine part of our job to evaluate research we are not exactly
experts in. I am not a climatologist, but I do take exception to your
assertion that I am therefore automatically too ignorant to understand
basic concepts that pertain to global warming and climate change. A
climatologist wouldn't instantly know what B-factors are, but is certainly
capable of understanding the concept if you explain it.
Using physical science and its data to arrive at conclusions regarding
religion, politics and economic theory (!) is not at all embarrassing.
(And letter in question hardly does any "preaching", certainly not about
religion)
As for your demand that people stick to structural biology, may I suggest
that your reaction to exactly one entry in ccp4bb that elicited almost zero
follow up (until your comment) feels a bit overblown? If you strongly
disagree with Dr Ripple and his colleagues, that is fine, but why shouldn't
people at ccp4bb occasionally share somewhat orthogonal information? None
of us want to see inappropriate content, I am just not sure why you feel
that this specific post is something that needs to be purged.
Just to be clear - your post does create an impression that you might hold
the opinion that, as they say, "global warming is a hoax". Please, let's
not have further discussion online on the specifics, but I think it might
be helpful if you could confirm or deny this.
Cheers,
Ed.
---
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to
say it"
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, "The Friends of Voltaire"
On Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 9:23 PM Daniel M. Himmel, Ph. D. <
danielmhim...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> Since when does being a structural biologist make us experts in
> climatology,
>
> and isn't it a breach of basic ethical practice and professionalism as
> scientists
>
> to sign on as authors to an article for which we have neither contributed
>
> research nor intellectual content of the manuscript? Are we now going
> against
>
> the standard to which the editorial policies of leading reputable
> biological
>
> journals normally hold us as authors? And doesn't it hurt the credibility
>
> of a serious scientific article, its authors, and the journal in which it
> appears
>
> if biologists with no expertise in earth science/astrophysics appear
>
> without humility as authors to such an article?
>
>
>
> Are you not embarrassed to put your name to an article that uses physical
>
> sciences data as a platform for preaching about religion, politics, and
> economic
>
> theory ("...social and economic justice for all...")?
>
>
>
> Does it not upset you when someone unfamiliar with structural biology draws
>
> firm conclusions that heavily depend on the part of a structural model
> that has high
>
> B-factors? So why are you unconcerned that you may be guilty of an
> analogous
>
> error when, as structural biologists, you put your name to a controversial
> interpretation
>
> of selected earth science data? See, for example,
>
> https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2017/02/24/living-warm-peak-ice-ages/
> about the ways
>
> climate data can be misinterpreted by choosing too tight a time interval,
> and lets stick to
>
> structural biology and allied sciences in the CCP4 list, please.
>
>
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Daniel M. Himmel
>
>
>
>>
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