Socially controversial science topics on Wikipedia draw edit wars

Gene Likens (Wikipedia link, naturally) is an ecologist who set up a longterm study of a forest in New Hampshire. That study found that the water entering the ecosystem was unusually acidic, a finding that was eventually tied back to pollution. This turned out to be one of the earliest indications of acid rain.

Likens might be expected to be satisfied with seeing his findings become widely accepted and eventually serve as the basis for national policy. But any satisfaction he felt almost certainly took a hit because he made a terrible mistake: he tried to make sure the Wikipedia entry on acid rain was accurate. In a new paper, Likens says "we noticed that some corrections we or others made on the acid rain article had been changed by major edits to introduce (or re-introduce) balderdash and factual errors into the content."

Looking more closely, Likens found that, even though the page typically had protected status, edits came fast and furious: