Dear Doug Well this was a long mail. And it was interesting. In being one of the 'ivory tower scientists' you mentioned I'd like to add a point. We did some SIR testing in a project. 4 different flux types, 4 levels of rel. humidity, 4 levels of temperature, testing time 1000h, SIR measurement once a day. A really interesting work. Interesting results. I tried to present the data compressed, understandable to the 'lesser educated populace' as you said. The result? I was told to be not on a sufficient academic level. People thought that having only enough time and money they could easily find the same results, draw the same conclusions without supporting a project at a polytech. Now there is no founding left for further research in this field. No money, no time to work on because we are pretty busy in hunting for new projects that give us the founds necessary to maintain the lab. So, 'two harts are in my chest'. One that asks for academic reputation, one that wants to be understood. But the big problem in research is the fact that much of the fun has gone since the governments are short on money. Founding has to be organised in industry.This means you can't work anymore in a field which is interesting and has open questions. You have to go for projects having a short term benefit for the supporting industry, present the data as complex as possible in order to be accepted as the only smart guy understanding what you are talking about, and you are forced to keep always some data back to justify further projects. I believe there are universities in the US having similar problems. Isn't there the possibility to support them and having in exchange someone performing serious tests, producing sensible results. Having a guru at side ( boy what would I be without the knowledge of the guys in the production line or the quality departments ) I believe a university should be able to produce data that are accessible without hurting somebody. Cordially Guenter Grossmann Swiss Federal Institute of Technology *************************************************************************** * TechNet mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * *************************************************************************** * To unsubscribe from this list at any time, send a message to: * * [log in to unmask] with <subject: unsubscribe> and no text. * *************************************************************************** * If you are having a problem with the IPC TechNet forum please contact * * Dmitriy Sklyar at 847-509-9700 ext. 311 or email at [log in to unmask] * ***************************************************************************