Comments by "Theodore Shulman" (@ColonelFredPuntridge) on "World Science Festival"
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No, I wouldn't say Eric is evil. He's kind of full of himself, but you can hardly blame him for that. And, of course, like all top-level academics, his real-life personality is very different from the persona he presents to the public and to his undergrad students. He's very demanding, and ruthless. Getting between him and something he wants is extremely unwise.
Besides everything else he has done, he's largely responsible for the existence of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence (and other forensic analytical-chemistry) to exonerate wrongly-convicted prisoners. He was an expert witness in a trial which relied on DNA back in the 1980s when DNA evidence was a new thing, before the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and the blue dress brought it into the public eye, and he quickly realized that neither side understood what DNA evidence means or how it is analyzed or how to understand it. So he gently explained to the lawyers on both sides that they all had their heads up their asses, and clarified the issues for them, and then two of the defense lawyers took his message to heart and founded the Innocence Project. He was on the project's board of directors and may still be.
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