Bethell says he joined the group after hearing Duesberg lecture on the topic at the University of California at Berkeley.

Bethell says the resistance stems from the inability of government researchers to entertain conflicting hypotheses.

"Questioning the government does not extend to medical questions," Bethell says. "The source of money has a lot to do with the direction of research."

Bethell says the scientists more willing to support the group are the older, established ones who are sufficiently independent. "Understanding of science has become completely intertwined with such political considerations," Bethell says.

Another major tenet of the group is that AZT, the nucleoside analog drug commonly used to treat AIDS, is poisonous.

"AZT is a tremendously toxic substance that was used for cancer chemotherapy in the 1960s," Thomas says. "It was rejected because it was too toxic. Under a lot of pressure by AIDS groups it was put on the market."

Resistance to the group's ideas has been stiff.

Since 1991, the reappraisal group has tried to publish a letter in a scientific journal calling for a re-evaluation of AIDS research. A highly edited letter finally ran in the journal Science this past February, co-signed by 12 members of the group. The letter states, "Until we have a definition of AIDS independent of HIV, the supposed correlation of HIV and AIDS is a tautology."

Funding problems have also hit at least one of the group's members. The Crimson was told that Peter Duesberg, a professor of molecular biology at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading member of the group, recently lost grant money for his research.

Some scientists interviewed for this article say that Duesberg is a "crackpot," but did not wish to be identified for what one called "fear of retribution."

"Most scientists just do not understand how someone with this knowledge can take this attitude," one scientist says. "It is widely regarded as totally and utterly irresponsible."

It is unclear whether the loss of the grant is related to Duesberg's membership in the reappraisal group.

Duesberg could not be reached for comment, despite repeated messages left at his office. The HIV Virus

Evidence

Thomas says he would like to see "just one paper that proports an assembly of evidence that HIV causes AIDS." But most established scientists say that while HIV's role in AIDS may have been unclear in 1991, a mountain of evidence since then has accumulated supporting the HIV hypothesis.