Word: meselson
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Harvard Professor Matthew S. Meselson is persisting in his claim that yellow rain is instead the feces of wild honeybees. Bee feces, Meselson and a Yale colleague have found, bear strong resemblances--in size, appearance, and characteristics--to alleged samples of yellow rain, many of which in fact contained pollen. Now back from a trip to Thailand, the scientists say they observed honey bees on defecation flights spraying the yellow spots that the government says are the residue of Soviet chemical weapons...
With no airtight scientific evidence available to prove the issue on either side, scientists and bureaucrats rush to back what seems most plausible or, some claim, what seems most politically comfortable. But the available evidence, Meselson's claims notwithstanding, appears to favor the government's contentions...
...Meselson, a principled opponent of chemical warfare of longstanding, ought to be congratulated for his courageous pursuit of his bee hypothesis in face of ridicule and intransigency by the government. Still, his explanation for the yellow rain phenomenon answers only one part of the broad array of evidence collected by the government to back its claims...
...Meselson repeated his contention that adequate scientific surveys have not yet been carried out to test for mycotoxins...
...change in position could diminish American credibility around the world--a political fact Meselson is well aware...