Witnessing the strong pressure to get these research results withdrawn is shocking and contradictory to the principle of democratic science itself. Anyone is entirely free to provide arguments against this study, within the frame of the normal democratic debate. Industrial, economic or political powers that would try to ban the free expression of a researcher would prove they refuse this debate, denying the principle of the universal declaration of human rights, the democratic constitutions of the United States and France as well as the fundamental principles of the European Union.

Dr Bruno Bordenave, botanist and doctor, National Museum of Natural History, France