An Italian prosecutor is going after seven seismologists and technicians who were unsure about whether last year's deadly L'Aquila earthquake would happen and offered their best guess that a major quake was not imminent. The charge: manslaughter, for failing to issue a warning and causing 308 deaths.
COMMENT: This is insane. It's terrifying to seismologists and other scientists (think meteorologists) who could potentially be held liable any time they get things wrong. Earthquake prediction is a very uncertain and immature field. If this actually goes through, who will ever try to advance this important frontier of science? Who will make anything but worst-case predictions on hurricanes, climate change, and so many other things?
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