Chinahand

I think your probably right - as you say the experimental accuracy is equivilent to 0.16mm which is close to that of a thick human hair. But the theoretical range is closer to the good old millimeter 0.79mm - now one millimeter in 4,000 kms is still pretty amazing but I think Feynman is really only giving justice to the experimental number not the theoretical one when he talks of one hairs breadth - as he was a theoretician it's a bit cheeky - you can get to a millimeter on a black board but you need an engineer to get within a hairs breadth!

A paper in the BMJ agrees with you VinnieK!

LINK

How citation distortions create unfounded authority: analysis of a citation network

Conclusion Citation is both an impartial scholarly method and a powerful form of social communication. Through distortions in its social use that include bias, amplification, and invention, citation can be used to generate information cascades resulting in unfounded authority of claims. Construction and analysis of a claim specific citation network may clarify the nature of a published belief system and expose distorted methods of social citation.

Alot of this at the moment centers around the various American National academies and such like, where their evolution outreach material is full of statements saying that evolutionary science is not incompatable with Christianity. The main point the atheistic scientists are making is that it is NOT the place of these academies to have any position concerning the compatability or incompatability of science to religion. They should just present the evidence.

I'm not unsympathetic to that - the outreach material I've seen doesn't even acknowledge that it is a very contested area - its presenting a very skewed picture where the only scientists given any publicity are the aixinian examples Coyne lists above - the atheists don't want equal time, or anything like that, they just want it acknowledged that the scientific bodies should champion science and not take a position in the culture wars. That seems reasonable if you ask me!