When Steven McKnight, president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), publicly complained in the society's September newsletter about the “riff-raff” that has infiltrated the research world (see go.nature.com/tu4nun), he quickly found himself in the social-media spotlight. He argued that the grant-review system run by the US National Institutes of Health is failing partly because of mediocre researchers serving on review committees. “The average scientist today is not of the quality of our predecessors,” wrote McKnight, who chairs the biochemistry department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Many researchers found his article insulting. Michael Hendricks, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, tweeted: “If I had any idea what the @ASBMB was, I would be cancelling my membership today.” In an interview, McKnight said that he regrets his choice of words, but stands by his arguments. See go.nature.com/gcf312 for more.