Subject: Re: feral researchers
Date: Apr 7 17:36:18 1996
From: Fred Sharpe - fsharpe at sfu.ca


>I shouldn't have been quite so hasty
>or so sweeping in my condemnation of research, but I've been a bit
>sensitized by, for example, a story about an alleged academic roaming the
>mudflats of Willapa Bay with a generator and an open microwave oven,
>"researching" how to control Spartina!

Concerning the individual micro-waving spartina. I don't think anyone is
in a particularly good position to judge value research based on "stories".
For all we know, this individual may have been applying a vegetation
control practice that has been demonstrated to be effective on other plant
species. Or perhaps he/she was attempting to develop a new techniques (I
imagine people said some pretty funny things about Tommy Edison). Perhaps
this individuals was still at a formative point in their study, where
"roaming" was appropriate, and it was premature to set up a standardized
treatment & control plots. At least this individual was attempting to
address a legitimate biological concern.

I have done some pretty weird things in the name of science. I've
constructed a variety of unusual contraptions in an attempt to test the
hunting tactics of marine predators. Often these attempts are clumsy and
exploratory at first, but by taking an adaptive approach, one can
eventually produce some devices that are instructive and innovative.

I think the concerns about this individual's academic credentials miss the
point. As bird watchers, we know that amateurs are capable of contributing
much to the knowledge base that good science is built on. There is often a
tendency to point out what is wrong with science (a legitimate endeavor).
However, it is also important to recognize the strengths of any given study
and to ask ourselves how we can provide constructive input.

Fred S.
Simon Fraser University