When you visit Pompei, you first come into a large square before you enter the old town.This was the „agora“ of the ancient greeks.It was the square where to go to discuss and exchange opinions.According to the greek philosophers,this was considered to be the best way to find out the truth.
I went to Boston in october 1984 to spend a period of research at the division of cell and molecolar biology in the Enders Building of The Children´s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. After having established the method of isolating liver cells and short-term cultures I wanted to study the intracellular steps of protein synthesis and its modulation by cytokines.The chief of the large and crowded laboratory,dr Harvey Colten ,also chief of pneumology, used to reside in a small office,where everybody working in the lab could visit him and discuss with him the most recent experiments and the latest „fresh“ results.By entering the office,one would immediately look at a small brownish sign on the wall and reed, written in yellow capital letters, the question „HOW DO YOU KNOW“. The task of the everyday work was to generate reproducible results which could allow to drow conclusions which could have been published and eventually reproduced in other laboratories around the world.
It makes me very sad to hear that in the same country now fake news agencies are becoming a big business.