On May 7, 2010, a letter signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences deplored attacks on both science and scientists who researched climate science or related fields. The assaults in the letter rely on two main components. First, statements contradict the preponderance of scientific evidence without a comparable body of evidence to the contrary. Second, as the size of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports grows, so does the probability of minor errors. Scientists and their organization should not have to spend the majority of their time defending their work, instead of working on their primary mission of conducting scientific research.