[meteorite-list] secrecy in our community

From: David Weir <dgweir_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 17 14:42:59 2004
Message-ID: <419BA9AA.11BE6C91_at_earthlink.net>

Dear list members,

I feel obliged to inform the list that the description of NWA 1839 that
I forwarded to the list (twice) is actually only a draft, incomplete,
and does not even include the names of two of the scientists involved -
namely, T. Irving and S. Kuehner. This was certainly an unintentional
mistake on the part of a few, which has caused some embarrassment within
the academic community. I am not happy to find myself involved in this
matter, as I think I am more than careful to avoid crossing the lines of
secrecy and ethical concerns.

However, I have decided that my memory is not as keen as it used to be,
and I no longer want the responsibility of sorting the vast amount of
information that I receive from innumerable sources into a "secret" file
and a "public" file. Therefore, I am stating publicly to all, that any
meteorite-related information that I may learn through any source will
be treated as public information, and I will do with it what I feel is
appropriate and beneficial to the needs of myself and the community at
large, just as I have been doing up to now.

I think the responsibility for this secrecy lies with both the grant
seeking academic community and the profit seeking meteorite business
community - I belong to neither (still waiting for that scholarship to
UNM or NAU). I will continue to frugally seek the meteorites I desire,
paying close attention to whether or not I already own such a meteorite
type so that I don't waste money buying duplicate items. This is the
hardest part of collecting that seems to cause so much consternation I
think.

So to sum up, starting today, David Weir will not keep your secrets
about a meteorite that has not been deemed official by NomCom so don't
tell him/me. The potential benefits gained (saving money by eliminating
duplication, and some vicarious thrills) are outweighed by the potential
harm to personal relationships. All I need is to read the few meteorite
journals which publish the information I seek. This is more information
than I know what to do with already. My personal collection is as
complete as I care to make it for now, pending publication of new types
from unique parent bodies.

I worked around tigers today, yesterday was elephants and cheetahs. My
work environment provides me with a perspective on the meteorite
community that doesn't paint a totally healthy picture, not as it should
be for the collecting and studying of rocks from space. I hope our
community will eliminate some of these lines of secrecy in order to make
life both more simple and more pleasurable, and for some, more
profitable.

Regards,
David
meteoritestudies.com
Received on Wed 17 Nov 2004 02:42:34 PM PST