Imaging technologies need trained practitioners

Gronenborn replies: My comment comparing nuclear magnetic resonance and x-ray crystallography as structural techniques was intended to highlight the younger nature of NMR versus crystallography. Crystallographers and NMR spectroscopists worth their salt would never advocate blind use of technologies without a thorough understanding of their basic principles, strengths, and limitations. Problems arising from loose interpretation and misuse of technology without critical analysis of the origin, quality, and reproducibility of generated data are, unfortunately, too common. But not every scientist is a methods developer or is, as David Kramer puts it in his report, well “conversant in the technology.” Success in the complex structural-biology tasks that lie ahead can be ensured only through rigorous education and training of students to critically and carefully use all methodologies available.