Best science

[John Grehan]

 If there is now a rash of proposals
>being filed to study spread and effects of Bt pollen, don't you think the
>ones that will get funded are simply the ones which promise to do the best
>science??

>Doug Yanega

Under competitive conditions funding may be determined by criteria
other than soley the "best" science since what approach is, or promises to be,
best is a matter of individual judgement and perspective. In general there may
be considerable agreement on the general parameters of good science,
but in detail views differ, so it will be a matter of how many reviewers
just happen to share the same viewpoint close enough to give  a
project a high enough ranking that it will get priority. Sometimes
other factors may be involved, such as the level of prominence of the
project authors, perceptions about their track record, and earlier
personal interactions between the project investigators and the reviewers.
These and other factors can and do affect funding. This is not to say
that the projects funded are necessarily not good science, but
"best" is a very relative term.

John Grehan