> That's how science is: open discourse.

It really isn't. And hasn't been. You can get burned at the stake or put under house arrest if you go back far enough.

I don't think it's an accident at all that science uses its own thick jargon instead of a simple approachable vocabulary. It filters out some of the people who will willfully misinterpret the results. Only later when things are pretty set did someone come along and explain it in layspeak.

I fear that a lot of the policy failings of late are caused in part by our attempts to democratize science.