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Science Matters

Science Matters is an open unmoderated email discussion list covering science, science issues and media coverage of science. It is hosted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and was first established in April 1997. The list is free, and open to everyone with an interest in science. The list is quite active and generates between 15 to 30 messages per day.

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Frequently Asked Questions


To unsubscribe simply use the above form after clicking the unsubscribe link.

How do I post a message to the list?

To post a message to the people on the list, address your message to

Note: This is a different address from the address you use to send commands to the list.

How do I change my email address?

Simply fill out the form twice – once to “subscribe” your new address and once to “unsubscribe” your old address.


Email lists are a way for people with a common interest to communicate, but always remember that when you send a message to a list, hundreds or even thousands of people will receive a copy of your message.

Rule Number One is to always remember that any messages you send to an email list are regarded as public, not private communications. They are subject to the same laws of libel, defamation and anti-vilification that apply to other media. Science-Matters is unmoderated and the views expressed within it are those of the individual message posters, but members should understand that messages that are libellous, defamatory and/or vilify are a complete NO-NO. The ABC reserves the right to remove any subscriber identified as having posted such messages to this list.

General guidelines

[Prepared with the assistance of Science-Matters subscriber Ian Musgrave]

Don't attach documents to the messages you send to the list. Not everyone has email accounts which allow them to receive attached documents. Attached documents also have the potential to carry viruses, so it's never a good idea to read them when they come from an email list anyway. It follows that sending an attached document to an email list is more likely to annoy people than help get your message across.

If you have something to say - try to include it in the text of your message, or else point to a web URL where people can find the same content. (That way it's their choice).

Be reasonably concise in posting or replying to posts. There is no longer any need for terse, one line replies or heavy use of abbreviations such as OTH, IMHO, ROTFLMAO etc. The modern Net is a lot faster than it used to be. Even so, posts which take up more than 3 screen pages will lose interest fast, unless you are a riveting writer. Posts should be kept under 2000 words, preferably in the under-500 range. This of course, depends on the complexity of the issue at hand.

When asking questions include enough information so that people can understand what you want to know. (Sounds obvious - but other list members don't always know where you are coming from).

There is no such thing as a stupid question, so don't be afraid to ask.

If including someone else's post don't include the entire post to make a one line reply (unless the post is a few lines long). When replying to a long post, edit the post to the relevant section that you are replying to. Always mark your deletions!

If necessary, break a reply up into smaller threads so that logical sections are easily followed. Do this carefully, not wantonly.

Judicious use of paragraph blocks will make your text easier to read and makes building the logical (or otherwise) structure of your post easier (and easier to follow).

Be polite this isn't alt.flame. For some obscure reason many pleasant, courteous people become abusive curmudgeons when participating in lists. There's no need for that. Be especially gentle with newbies - we're all on our own learning curve!

Proof-read your posts before replying so that spelling errors or late night lapses of logic can be caught. If you are angry when replying, go make a cuppa before posting, then come back when you have cooled down a bit and re-read your post. Did you really mean to say that?

Do not include attachments, binary or otherwise. The default settings of recent Microsoft and Netscape email programs appear to attach an HTML version to every message. This results in a lot of clutter in subscribers “attached” folders. Digest subscribers see it as a lot of unreadable garbage after your message - a waste of bandwidth and disk space. If you are using an email product that does this, please find out how to change the default settings so that the program won't automatically attach the unwanted HTML copy.

Above all, retain your sense of humour.

Can I see my own messages?

By default, the list processing software assumes you want a copy of your own messages, so it'll echo a copy to you. Most people like the tangible confirmation that their message was sent. But others don't like to waste bandwidth receiving copies of their own messages (There's a philosophical divide here). Happily there is an easy way to suit everybody. If you don't want to have your messages echoed back to you, send a blank message to:

To change it back, send another message to:

Are there archives of the list?

Archives of messages up to one week old can be retrieved via email. To do this, send a message to:

In the body of the message type:

get abc-science-matters yyyymmdd-yyyymmdd

Where "yyyy" is the year, "mm" the month and "dd" the day. For example if you wanted to retrieve all message from 31 Jan 2008 to 4 Feb 2008, your message would read:

get abc-science-matters 20080131-20080204

Is the list moderated?

Science-matters is not currently moderated . We hope to keep it that way, but ultimately, the question of moderation or non-moderation rests with the subscribers. This list is for discussion of science, science issues and media coverage of science. So long as subscribers stick to these topics, the list will remain unmoderated.

Is there a digest of the list?

Yes. Rather than receiving a separate message every time someone posts to the list, you can receive a digest which packs all of the days email into one single message. This is a very good way to stay in touch with what people are talking about, but it has the downside that you can't respond quite so quickly. Ideal for lurkers. To set digest mode send a blank message to:

To change it back so you receive messages as they are posted, send a blank message to:

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