[Taxacom] Tardigrades ----> to Nematodes

[Stephen Thorpe]

>All kidding aside, *is* there a limit, some set of criteria, which distinguishes something worth pursuing from something NOT worth pursuing?
...and apply this also to bioinformatics initiatives! :)
________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Doug Yanega [dyanega at ucr.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, 17 February 2010 11:14 a.m.
To: TAXACOM at MAILMAN.NHM.KU.EDU
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Tardigrades ----> to Nematodes

Mike Ivie wrote:

>Let us say that Kenman's ideas are
>nothing but what Gould called "just so stories."

Some are more "just so" than others, of course; there is one author
claiming that the larvae of holometabolous insects are the result of
lateral gene transfer from Onychophora. Put that scenario together
with the proposal from another author that Onychophora are descended
from Myriapoda, and you have a pretty convoluted story, indeed:
insect larvae have prolegs due to genes that originated in myriapods.

Are all such hypotheses deserving of being tested, and if so, how
much of NSF's budget should be devoted to them? (and how do I get me
some of that there money - I can come up with LOTS of interesting
hypotheses like these!)   ;-)

All kidding aside, *is* there a limit, some set of criteria, which
distinguishes something worth pursuing from something NOT worth
pursuing? It's virtuous and noble to have an open mind, but not so,
to be gullible. I'm not trying to start a debate here, but - viewing
the philosophy of science as an endeavor - the boundary between
science and nonsense isn't always visible until AFTER the results are
in, so how do we decide beforehand what is worth investigating?

Sincerely,
--

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

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