[Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

[Robin Leech]

Andrew,

You have started to hit on the reason taxonomists do not get money.

I am a P.Biol. in Alberta, and until 2009, I was the Executive Director of
the Society.

It was said in jest, but there is a lot of truth in it.  Note the following:

If you have a problem, and you give it to 10 engineers to solve, they
will forego their differences, work together and give you the answer.

If you have a problem, and you give it to 10 biologists to solve, they
will each take the problem, not work together, and you may wind up
with 10 answers.  Mind you, each answer may be correct in itself, but
there has been no effort to produce a common solution all can agree
upon.

I have for years mulled the reason for this: is it that the training of 
biologists
"to work independently to obtain independent results" produces these
souls who do not seem to work will with one another, or, is it the
nature of those who go into biology, and merely strengthened by the
kind of training/education they get?

When the astronomers go for their money, they make the case that all
of humankind will profit from the information gained about the universe.

Biologists seem to be so tied into their own needs that they do not
project the results of their works in such a way that politicians and other
funders can see the benefits of the results to humankind.

Robin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Mitchell" <Andrew.Mitchell at austmus.gov.au>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter


Hi All,

I think the real reason that astronomers can get huge grants and taxonomists 
can't is that taxonomists/systematists are such a fractious bunch they just 
can't help but shoot themselves in the foot by protesting vociferously 
against any emerging large initiatives. A case in point is barcoding. The 
concept has caught the public's imagination and could bring megabucks to 
taxonomy, but instead of seeing the possibilities, getting involved and 
working together to integrate and improve this fledgling system many 
taxonomists would rather fire shots from the sidelines.  Have you ever seen 
a documentary on TV where say radioastronomers slam gamma-ray astronomers as 
having no understanding of their subdiscipline? Of course not! They would 
rather work together to build the multi-billion dollar SKA that they can all 
use.

Now that I'm sticking my neck out I may as well add that funding models 
which favour "innovation" over all else are partly to blame. This is why we 
have so many different initiatives digitising taxonomy (checklists, species 
pages & images, the heritage literature) with limited interactivity - each 
successive proposal must demonstrate that it is doing something 
"innovative", i.e. different from existing projects.

OK, my flame guards are up so fire away!

Andrew

Andrew Mitchell
Integrative Systematist
Entomology

Australian Museum
6 College Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
t 61 2 9320 6346   f 61 2 9320 6042
www.australianmuseum.net.au


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