Word: meselson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Crimson: Professor Meselson, what makes you sure that the yellow spots which have been found are bee feces...
...Meselson: they [the yellow spots] have the same diameter as bee feces. They have the same color and texture as bee feces. They have the same number of drops per square foot. The areas that are reported to be covered--a fraction of an acre up to quite a few acres--is the same as the massive flights of bees. That's all we can see with the naked eye. Now we go to what we can see with the microscope. They contain the same high content of pollen, pollen from plants that are mainly pollinated by insects, from plants...
...Meselson: Yes, but we have found spots where the composition was very different. That's also true with bee feces because no two bees eat the same meals. They eat differently. They store the pollen heterogeneously and they eat it heterogeneously. So if this had been an agent of warfare, with no two spots being the same, it would mean that whoever is doing this makes teeny little batches, makes them all different, and sprays them all separately...
...Meselson: We're [the United States] just wrong, we made a mistake, an honest mistake, but a mistake. Because the State Department had woefully inadequate scientific advice and they made a mistake. A very serious mistake. I think that if the scientific advice had told them what this stuff really is, they would not have made public statements...
...Meselson: The reason that this is a very serious kind of mistake is that it's all tied up with the importance of verification. If we have low standards of verification and make certain allegations as part of the verification process, we are making ourselves vulnerable. It's the same kind of problem, whether you call it verification or an allegation; how do you evaluate evidence regarding violation or non-violation of international agreements which have scientific basis. There's a very great vulnerability of our government at present to inadequate scientific advice...