if you go onto the site and attempt to register, it gives categories to check. If you check the box that says you are neither of the above (dr., researcher, etc.) it will tell you that only people in those categories can "participate" in the online discussion but that everyone can read the online material. So I am OK with this, at least being able to read what the scientists have to say, even if I cannot understand it (and that may be a large factor of why they excluded non-scientific people like me, I'd be interrupting all the time to ask questions and the merits of the discussion would get bogged down.)

I'm not offended by this, because personally, I would have nothing to contribute to a scientific discussion...but I do feel they could benefit greatly from the years of white-rat experimentation that has been done by folks here and elsewhere, Ron and Rick come to mind but there are others.

Anything that helps, I'm for, and I am hoping that this will.