U.S. Tightening Rules on Keeping Scientific Secrets. What secrets? If their sole reason for witholding information from the scientific community (as well as everyone else) is anthrax and other possible bioterrorism agents, the government is acting like a pig-headed, conspiracy-addled schizophrenic. Not that it is already. By not publishing experimental procedures, the experiment can't be reproduced in other independent labs. By obscuring the "nuts and bolts" of research, the knowledge that can be gained would also be lost. If I am to read a paper without its methods section, how am I to understand the results? Studying science would become pointless--just like trying to study history even though people failed to record past events.
