Science is not magic
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/23/world/europe/italy-quake-scientists-guilty/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Seismologists were aghast at the court's decision, noting that earthquakes remain impossible to forecast with any kind of accuracy.
"To predict a large quake on the basis of a relatively commonplace sequence of small earthquakes and to advise the local population to flee" would constitute "both bad science and bad public policy," said David Oglesby, an associate professor in the Earth sciences faculty of the University of California, Riverside.
"If scientists can be held personally and legally responsible for situations where predictions don't pan out, then it will be very hard to find scientists to stick their necks out in the future," Oglesby said in a statement...
Seismologists were aghast at the court's decision, noting that earthquakes remain impossible to forecast with any kind of accuracy.
"To predict a large quake on the basis of a relatively commonplace sequence of small earthquakes and to advise the local population to flee" would constitute "both bad science and bad public policy," said David Oglesby, an associate professor in the Earth sciences faculty of the University of California, Riverside.
"If scientists can be held personally and legally responsible for situations where predictions don't pan out, then it will be very hard to find scientists to stick their necks out in the future," Oglesby said in a statement...