[Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

Wed Apr 20 08:42:18 CDT 2011

I think this is a bit of a misrepresentation of biologists, at least
'biologists' in general. I certainly have collaborations with many other
biologists to solve problems. 

If anything can have a pernicious effect on greater collaboration it is
competitive funding that helps create and support cliques competing for
those resources.

The flowing assertion can be circular. How do we know that biologists do
not project their results as beneficial to funders? Because they are not
funded. Why are they not funded? Because they failed to projected their
results... etc.

"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."

Actually some sectors of biology do very well for funding - e.g. health
sciences - not that the research is necessarily any better (David Hull
once asserted that medical research was the best funded and also the
worst science).

John Grehan

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Robin Leech
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 9:13 AM
To: Andrew Mitchell; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

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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