New Post: "I Do Listen to the Experts. Do YOU?"

[asteckley]

It, of course, depends on what they have a PhD in. Someone who is a Professor in Chemistry couldn't be considered an expert in the context of the Voynich manuscript.

I would have to disagree with that claim as stated. It's true a chemistry PhD can't be claimed as evidence that one is an expert in certain aspects of the Voynich. But expertise and graduate credentials are generally orthogonal. 

A PhD is not an indication of expertise within the field of the degree nor outside it.  I say this as someone who puts great value on the achievement of a graduate degree. But as my own PhD supervisor once said: a PhD is simply a formal demonstration that one can carry out 'independent research' and it counts for little more; Expertise is acquired by experience.

Conversely, it does not require a PhD to become an expert in a subject (God help us all if that we true.)

(Nor, incidentally, does it take a PhD to recognize if a plant drawing resembles a particular plant. It may take solid rational arguments  to infer the artist's actual intentions -- which an expert in a relevant field may have more readily at hand -- but resemblance can be concluded by anyone with common skills.)