Scientists bristle at House inquiry

What's Joe Barton up to?

"In a July 13 letter to U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner said the committee's requests to the researchers for information not only on their recent studies but also their life's work 'give the impression of a search for some basis on which to discredit these particular scientists and findings, rather than a search for understanding.'"

Rather than judging work on its own merits it seems someone is fishing for way to discredit researchers based upon their professional pedigree. Only those with good pedigrees merit attention. If that were true we would not have ever heard of the work of the brilliant Indian math genius, Ramanujan. That's what is enduring and worthwhile about science, the work speaks for itself, good or bad.