Amy Bishop, neuroscientist, inventor, murder suspect, has become bigger than life, a symbol for those who think that genius is close to madness, or that women cannot get ahead in science, or that tenure systems in universities are brutalizing  or even that progress against fatal diseases is so important that someone like Dr. Bishop should be set free to pursue cures.

At least that is what emerges from hundreds of comments on the Internet about Dr. Bishop, the assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville charged with shooting six colleagues  three of them fatally  at a faculty meeting on Feb. 12.

“Perhaps the saying ‘There’s a fine line between genius and insanity’ has a lot of truth to it,” George from Pennsylvania wrote at nytimes.com.

Many posted comments like this: “I do not approve of what Dr. Bishop did, but I understand her frustration.” Being denied tenure “in spite of her contributions past and future,” the writer added, “is sufficient to provoke a murderous rage against the chairman and the university.”