(from Astronomy & Geophysics,
44, 2.9, 2003)
You may be aware that I have been,
and am, a bitter critic of the way A&G
was introduced. QJ was one of my favourite
publications of our Society and I regret its loss very
keenly. As to A&G itself, it initially
suffered from a number of coffee-table faults.
These faults have now been attended to and A&G
is now much more professional. Most importantly, you
have of late been successful in attracting much better
quality articles.
Now you have done a signal service
to our discipline by commissioning and publishing the
discussion on "plumes". It is a standing vice
of geophysics not to argue against unpalatable facts
and arguments, but simply to ignore them and carry on
as if they did not exist. It is hardly to be expected
that a single issue of A&G will correct
this tendency, but it will make a dent in it. Perhaps
we shall hear less about "the nucleus" of
a comet, and "the Oort Cloud".
Anyway, I do congratulate you and hope
that this initiative will be the first of many urging
geophysicists and astronomers to wake-up to neglected
facts and theories.
Professor Emeritus P.B. Fellgett,
FRS,
Little Brighter,
Bodmin,
Cornwall,
U.K. |