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In a posting that demeans a serious and careful scientist, Jin He rants:

If you visit those more democratic forums, you will see that there are large amounts of discussion on Relativity, Gravity, Cosmology. This means these area of science get big problems!!! You can not suppress the voices of the public!!

Like David Halliday and others here, I have seen too many posts (and received private e-mails) that say, essentially, "I've got this brilliant interpretation that overthrows relativity and/or quantum mechanics, but it is rejected by a cabal of stick-in-the-mud editors and establishment scientists who suppress it because it threatens them."

In the end such posts, and Jin He's rant, ignore that scientists are more open to new ideas and new evidence than almost anyone else.

As long as a growing body of evidence supports those theories and interpretations of natural phenomena, neither ranting nor democratic voting will discredit them. On the other hand credible evidence that is contrary to those theories and interpretations will force their reassessment.

Jin He wants to put the laws of nature to a vote. I would much prefer to discuss the evidence instead.

Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)