[Nhcoll-l] "erosion of collections-based science" article
malcolm McCallum
malcolm.mccallum at herpconbio.org
Wed Nov 26 17:37:06 EST 2014
IN 1970, genetics would be a fad.
When we dumped all our cards into the atom, we got atomic energy,
when we dumped all our cards into genetics, we got a lot of other goods
stuff.
However, the point was not that genetics was a fad, the point was that the
behavior that prevailed in the 1970s was the kind of thing that happens
regularly in science. Money is tossed at a single idea at the expense of
others, instead of in addition to others. And, we cut those budgets so
thin that rapidly people are unable to do their projects. It would have
been far better to establish research chairs across the country where the
top faculty reside, those faculty hire underlings to work in their area of
focus. They manage the budgets and guide the research instead of spending
oodles of time writing proposals. Although proposal writing is
constructive in many ways, it is also time consuming and if we had set up
our scientific infrastructure in a maner that would not require scientist
to spend so much time doing it, the productivity woudl be way higher.
And, before you jump to conclusions, I've had my success with proprosal
writing, I even worked as a grantwriter for some time. So, I am not just
someone who is incapable of getting funding. I'm fully capable of getting
funding and enjoy chasing grant money. However, I do believe there was a
better way, and the story of Szilard DEFINITELY can be seen in today's
scientific community. In the 1960s, if I was to walk into a small teaching
college, I would find very productive people there publishing
semi-regularly on stuff taht interested them. Today, after sitting down
and surveying the productivity at regional state universities I discovered
taht 37% of tenured faculty in biology have not published a single paper in
over five years. There are many reasons for this. Part of it is being
trained to only do research that requires major funding, meaning that when
you are in a situation where major funding is very difficult to get, you
are going to be very unproductive. However, there are other problems
working in consort with this ranging from more paperwork and increased
responsibilities that largely never were the responsibility of a
professor. In any case, this does not change the situation.
On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 1:02 PM, Barry OConnor <bmoc at umich.edu> wrote:
> Wow - genetics was just a fad. Who would have thought??
> Now, back to putting specimens in drawers. - Barry
>
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 10:54 AM, malcolm McCallum <
> malcolm.mccallum at herpconbio.org> wrote:
>
>> THis is what happens when the focus of non-profit institutions moves from
>> concern with their mission (research-education-etc.) and income.
>> Benevolence and the greater good no longer play a role in most
>> organizations. Further, the absurbd chasing of fads at the cost of
>> foundations
>> is further eroding the fabric of science, just as predicted in the short
>> story "The Mark Gable Foundation" in Leo Szilard's collection of short
>> stories entitled "The Voice of Dolphins. (
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=xm2mAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).
>> Scientists are increasingly chasing fads, and ignoring the unknown in other
>> areas. Why, just a few months ago they discovered a tendon that is 80% of
>> folk's knees. IT is damaged in most people who are involved in sports, and
>> they did not even know it existed. How could this happen? Well, who does
>> gross anatomy research anymore? Everyone jumped on the genetics bandwagon
>> in the 70s through the 80s and no attention was made to preserving the rest
>> of biology. Now, we have jumped on the computational bandwagon. Every few
>> years to every decade, there is a new drum beat for a new fad, and everyone
>> is trained for it. In the case of biology, rather than trying to fill in
>> the natural history blanks to fill these computational problems, they just
>> make assumptions based on what we know about other organisms. All of this
>> leads to less use of specimens. Further, most museum posts get filled by
>> systematists, if they are filled by a PHD at all. Systematists are largely
>> doing molecular work today and outside of vouchers do not examine the
>> morphological variation, so they do not use the specimens like they once
>> did. The people who actually use the specimens the most are the small cadre
>> of scientists who have been trained in natural history studies. These
>> kinds of people still address questions in evoltuion, systematics,
>> behavior, and even conservation and epidemiology using specimens as samples
>> of biological data that was subject to the environmental conditions present
>> at the time. Anything from growth rates, to reproductive output, diets, to
>> growth patterns can be inferred from specimens. These kinds of scientists
>> are not being trained, they are not being hired in museums (private,
>> public, or university) as far as I can tell. The problem with just making
>> an assumption as most scientists are doing right now, is that whether you
>> are using niche modeling, monte carlo methods, or species risk assessment,
>> the more assumptions you insert into the models, the more you magnify
>> uncertainty and reduce the dependability of the predictions. In other
>> words, its sheer laziness. In any case, the move away from studying
>> organisms and the move to chase fads and bandwagons (whether legitimately
>> needing growth or not) has eroded the scientific process, and no one even
>> seems to care or pay attention. The loss of museum scientists and research
>> programs are only a small symptom of this growing problem.
>>
>> Here is an exerpt..
>>
>> "Would you intend to do anything for the advancement of science?" I
>> asked.
>> "No, Mark Gable said. "I believe scientific progress is too fast as it
>> is."
>> "I share your feeling about this point." I said with the fervor of
>> conviction, "but then why not do somthing about the retardation of the
>> scientific progress?"
>> "That I would very much like to do," Mark Gable said, "But how do I go
>> about it?"
>> "Well," I said, "I think that shouldn't be very difficult. As a matter
>> of fact, I think it would be quite easy. You could set up a foundation,
>> with an annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Research workers in
>> need of funds could apply for grants, if they coudl make out a convincing
>> case. Have ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists, appointed
>> to pass on these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the
>> laboratory and make them members of these committees. And the very best men
>> in the field should be appinted as chairmen at salaries of fifty thousand
>> dollars each. Also, have about twenty prizes of one hundred thosand
>> dollars each for the best scientific papers of the year. This is just
>> about all you would have to do. Your lawyers could easily prepare a charter
>> for the foundation. As a matter of fact, any of the National Science
>> Foundation bills which were introduced in the Seventy-ninth and Eightieth
>> Congresses could perfectly well serve as a model.:
>> "I thin you had better explain to Mr. Gable why this foundation would
>> in fact retard the progress of science," said a bespectacled young man
>> sitting at the far end of the table, whose name I didn't get at the time of
>> introduction.
>> "It should be obvious," I said. "First of all, the best scientists
>> would be removed from their laboratories and kept busy on committees
>> passing on applications for funds. Secondly, the scientific workers in need
>> of funds would concentrate on problems which were considered promising and
>> were pretty certain to leasdd to publishable results. For a few years there
>> might be a great increase in scientific output; but by goin gafte thte
>> obvious, pretty soon scinece would dry out. Scinece would become something
>> like a parlor game. Some things would be considered interesting, others
>> not. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get
>> grants. Those who wouldnt would not, an dpretty soon they woul dlearn to
>> foll the fashion, too."
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 6:30 AM, Jessica Smith <
>> jesmith at randolphcollege.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Jeanette et al,
>>>
>>> That is really a shame, because at Randolph College we have found that
>>> working with our collections has been an invaluable resource and resume
>>> builder for our undergraduate students. In 2011, they were almost entirely
>>> neglected and in storage in the attic, with only a couple of professors in
>>> the Biology and Environmental Science departments who used select specimens
>>> in teaching. At that time I was an older undergraduate student, and began
>>> working with those professors to bring them out of storage and to utilize
>>> student interns for the purpose of cataloging and digitizing our
>>> collections, which include birds, mammals, shells, invertebrates, reptiles
>>> and amphibians, a sizable herbarium, fossils, and insects. In only three
>>> years, the student involvement has gone from 3 to 30, and continues to
>>> grow. We currently have student interns involved in projects ranging from
>>> specimen preparation, digital photography, cataloging and conservation, and
>>> promotion of collections. We also incorporated collections-based research,
>>> recently helping an archaeologist to identify bird, mammal, and human
>>> remains from a cemetery site in Tunisia using the osteological reference
>>> material in our collection, estimating a Minimum Number of Individuals, and
>>> sequencing DNA from some of the human remains. The students involved in the
>>> project aren't just biology or museum studies majors; we have had interns
>>> who have majored in art, history, economics, sociology, environmental
>>> studies, and creative writing. Several current interns are considering
>>> careers in forensics, and have been doing the dental attrition of human
>>> remains. Our recent graduates have embarked on awesome careers, including
>>> jobs in education, field ornithology, wildlife conservation, and
>>> environmental research at facilities such as Oak Ridge National
>>> Laboratories, as well as graduate programs such as veterinary medicine and
>>> ecology. We have even been working on a collaborative project with a
>>> regional middle school group; the middle schoolers are using our
>>> collections as a resource for material to recreate through 3-D printing,
>>> giving them highly marketable skills in complex computer drafting and
>>> design.
>>>
>>> As a small college, we are limited with funding but are fortunate that
>>> Randolph College and the Lynchburg community recognize the great value of
>>> this project, to our students and to the future they represent. At a recent
>>> faculty meeting one of our deans joked that the Collections Project
>>> attracts more students than any of our sports teams, and it's practically
>>> true! And with good reason--students know that the experiences they get
>>> from working with museum collections constitutes real, tangible, active
>>> research, which gives them a competitive edge when applying to jobs or
>>> graduate programs which seek candidates who are actively engaged in
>>> intellectual inquiry and give careful attention to detail.
>>>
>>> If anyone wants to know more about the details of our program, let me
>>> know (on or off list) and I will be happy to answer any questions. We are
>>> eager to do everything we can to offset the disturbing trend toward neglect
>>> of collections-based science!
>>>
>>> Emily Smith, Collections Manager
>>> Randolph College Natural History Collections Project
>>> esmith at randolphcollege.edu
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On Oct 29, 2014, at 2:21 PM, Jeanette Girosky <jeanettegirosky at yahoo.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> How utterly depressing.
>>>
>>> I am an older adult undergrad student and I volunteer for a small
>>> natural history collection. My experience has been that there is a huge
>>> disconnect between my university and our collection. If the biology
>>> department of my school is not aware of/encourages the use of our
>>> collection, how will the importance of collections be maintained?
>>>
>>> I have not had ONE professor even mention our collection as a resource
>>> for students on their own. It took a few years but I FINALLY got my
>>> herpetology class to at least come visit our collection. We don't learn any
>>> curatorial skills in our labs. I wish there was a 'museum 101' class...or
>>> something to that effect.
>>>
>>> It's also hard, I imagine, to have advocacy when you have budget
>>> shortfalls and an already overwhelmed staff. And if the interest of my
>>> fellow students is any indication of the future of natural history
>>> collections, well, we are doomed.
>>>
>>> I wish I had some answers. As a volunteer I do everything I can to
>>> engage the public and try and come up with interesting displays for public
>>> events. I am really hoping others will contribute their ideas to this
>>> thread as to what they do to advocate their collections/research.
>>>
>>>
>>> thanks,
>>> Jeanette Girosky
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:41 PM, "Bentley, Andrew Charles" <
>>> abentley at ku.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Randy
>>>
>>> I think that shift has already happened. I spend an inordinate amount
>>> of my time advocating for my collection, KU collections and collections in
>>> general and it has become an integral part of what I do. I think we all
>>> need to advocates - not only for our own collections and collections in
>>> general but for our profession. The profession has changed profoundly over
>>> the last 10-15 years but all too often we are still seen as glorified
>>> bottle "shufflers". Part of this is due to the fact that we have not done
>>> a good enough job advocating for our profession as a group. Just like
>>> collections and their data can no longer be seen as silos that can be
>>> managed as you see fit, our profession is the same. We need to advocate
>>> not only for our position within our institution but for the profession as
>>> a whole on a wider scale. SPNHC, together with NSCA and AIBS (and more
>>> recently iDigBio) are a great facilitator and conduit for that kind of
>>> advocacy and I can see change happening.
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>> A : A : A :
>>> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
>>> V V V
>>> Andy Bentley
>>> Ichthyology Collection Manager/Specify Usability Lead
>>> University of Kansas
>>> Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center
>>> Dyche Hall
>>> 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
>>> Lawrence, KS, 66045-7593
>>> USA
>>>
>>> Tel: (785) 864-3863
>>> Fax: (785) 864-5335
>>> Email: ABentley at ku.edu
>>>
>>> A : A : A :
>>> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
>>> V V V
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* Singer, Randal [randal.a.singer at ua.edu]
>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 29, 2014 12:24 PM
>>> *To:* Bentley, Andrew Charles; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
>>> *Subject:* RE: "erosion of collections-based science" article
>>>
>>> I think as CMs, our focus will shift from research and facilitating
>>> research to being more of outreach conduits. Which isn't necessarily
>>> bad....but the times they are a changin'.
>>>
>>> <image001.jpg>
>>>
>>> *From:* nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [
>>> mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
>>> <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Bentley, Andrew
>>> Charles
>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 29, 2014 12:18 PM
>>> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
>>> *Subject:* [Nhcoll-l] FW: "erosion of collections-based science" article
>>>
>>> Thought this might be of interest to NHCOLLers. Once again, there are
>>> some interesting threads that come from NatSCA that may be of interest.
>>> Please consider signing up for this list. I will continue to forward items
>>> of interest though...
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>> A : A : A :
>>> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
>>> V V V
>>> Andy Bentley
>>> Ichthyology Collection Manager/Specify Usability Lead
>>> University of Kansas
>>> Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center
>>> Dyche Hall
>>> 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
>>> Lawrence, KS, 66045-7593
>>> USA
>>>
>>> Tel: (785) 864-3863
>>> Fax: (785) 864-5335
>>> Email: ABentley at ku.edu
>>>
>>> A : A : A :
>>> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>
>>> V V V
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* The Natural Science Collections Association discussion list [
>>> NATSCA at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] on behalf of Henry Mcghie [
>>> henry.mcghie at MANCHESTER.AC.UK]
>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 29, 2014 11:04 AM
>>> *To:* NATSCA at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>>> *Subject:* FW: "erosion of collections-based science" article
>>> Hello- this is maybe of interest, especially to those of you involved
>>> in advocacy.
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Henry
>>>
>>> *From:* Bulletin Board for Bird Collections and Curators [
>>> mailto:AVECOL-L at LISTSERV.LSU.EDU <AVECOL-L at LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>] *On
>>> Behalf Of *Capparella, Angelo
>>> *Sent:* 29 October 2014 16:03
>>> *To:* AVECOL-L at LISTSERV.LSU.EDU
>>> *Subject:* [AVECOL-L] "erosion of collections-based science" article
>>>
>>> Our recently retired, not likely to be replaced, herbarium curator at
>>> Illinois State University sent me this interesting article below (minus
>>> images and hyperlinks to prevent post rejection). As others have retired
>>> from ISU, I have absorbed as Curator first the Birds, then the Mammals,
>>> then the Herps, and finally the Fish. Upon the recent retirement of the
>>> Insect Curator, I volunteered to oversee the Insects until a decision is
>>> made as to what to do with them. Of course, being Curator is an add-on duty
>>> here. Fortunately, our retired herbarium director is going to continue as
>>> an active emeritus for awhile. Another interesting incident this semester
>>> occurred when a M.S. student from the University of Illinois came to use
>>> our bird collection for his spectrograph project because the collection at
>>> his institution is “currently inaccessible”. Where will it end?
>>>
>>> Angelo Capparella
>>>
>>> *The Erosion of Collections-Based Science: Alarming Trend or
>>> Coincidence?*
>>> From *Plant Press, Vol. 17, No. 4*, October 2014.
>>> *A Curator’s Perspective*
>>> *By Vicki A. Funk**
>>> Over the last few years many visitors have passed through the doors of
>>> the *U.S. National Herbarium** (Herbarium Code: US)* bringing
>>> depressing news about some of our fellow botanical institutions and
>>> research centers. Institutions, which house historic and otherwise
>>> important botanical specimens, have been closed. The scientists who study,
>>> preserve, and curate them, have been fired, downsized, forced into
>>> retirement, or had their focus directed away from taxonomy and systematics.
>>> When reasons are given they usually involve budget shortfalls;
>>> unfortunately, collections and research are easy targets. But when I
>>> mentioned this to one former museum director who was visiting, his reply
>>> was, “When I was a director and had a budget shortfall I went out and
>>> raised more money, I did not fire my staff!”
>>> Is this a trend or a coincidence? Perhaps a more detailed examination of
>>> events will provide an answer and so we begin with the Milwaukee Public
>>> Museum and continue up to the ongoing recent troubles at the Royal Botanic
>>> Gardens, Kew.
>>> In 2005 *Milwaukee Public Museum** (MIL; established in 1882; 250,000
>>> specimens)* eliminated science and fired most of its staff. If you
>>> check the museum’s website it seems they no longer have much of a science
>>> presence, just a few collections managers, emeritus curators and adjunct
>>> curators who have jobs elsewhere. At the time, most of us thought this was
>>> a unique event. How could an institution with 4.5 million objects and
>>> specimens, spread over a broad array of departments go out of the research
>>> business? How did they think they would keep their collections, exhibits
>>> and education programs up to date? But in the nearly 10 years since that
>>> event, additional examples of this type of nearsighted administrative
>>> behavior has become more frequent as research program after research
>>> program has taken the brunt of budget shortfalls; we have become
>>> increasingly more alarmed.
>>> *Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden* *(FTG; established in 1936; 165,000
>>> specimens).*
>>> Fairchild has long been active in systematic research. The board and
>>> administration decided to move to a different model where they would no
>>> longer pay the salaries of research staff but rather have Florida
>>> International University faculty work out of Fairchild. They currently have
>>> only one research scientist working there. Over a period from 2007 to 2009,
>>> the emphasis for research seems to have shifted from tropical systematics
>>> to ecology and conservation. In fact, you cannot even find the herbarium on
>>> the Fairchild website. If you search for it on Google all you can find is
>>> the *FTG Virtual Herbarium* which contains only about half the
>>> collections.
>>> *New York State Museum, Albany* *(NYS; established in 1836; 279,000
>>> specimens).*
>>> Most of the research staff was let go a few years ago, including all of
>>> the botanists. According to the staff directory, there are four curators,
>>> all zoologists, one of which appears to be a state employee. They do have
>>> collection managers listed for most collections, including botany, but the
>>> herbarium does not appear to have an active research program.
>>> *Brooklyn Botanical Garden* *(BKL; established in 1910; 300,000
>>> specimens).*
>>> In August 2013, Brooklyn Botanic Garden suspended its research program
>>> and shuttered its herbarium. All members of the Garden’s Science Department
>>> were laid off, except for one herbarium assistant who was transferred
>>> elsewhere and a part-time plant mounter. The Science Department’s director
>>> was on sabbatical at NSF and she has since left the Garden for a position
>>> elsewhere. The Director of Living Collections was made the Director of
>>> Collections with the additional responsibility of managing the herbarium.
>>> The staff laid off had 60 years of combined experience with BKL. Currently
>>> no scientific research is being conducted at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The
>>> herbarium, once widely used by scientists especially those doing research
>>> in New York City and Long Island, remains essentially inaccessible to the
>>> public.
>>> *Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad** (INBio) (INB; established in
>>> 1989; 183,000 specimens).*
>>> In 2011 INBIO announced that it was going out of the collections and
>>> research business. The herbarium was rapidly moved into another building
>>> because the building built specifically for the herbarium, had been sold.
>>> Recently, the entire staff was let go. This important collection is
>>> completely databased and available on line and together with the herbarium
>>> at the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica
>>> <http://www.museocostarica.go.cr/herbario/> (CR; 215,000 specimens)
>>> they make Costa Rica the best botanically documented country between Mexico
>>> City and Bogota. Fortunately, the Museo has agreed to take charge of the
>>> herbarium; although, currently, they do not have the space to incorporate
>>> the specimens. So far, there is no guarantee that there will be jobs for
>>> the staff. Hopefully, there will be a new building constructed so that both
>>> collections can be combined and additional trained staff will be hired to
>>> manage it.
>>> *Field Museum of Natural History** (F; established in 1893; 2,700,000
>>> specimens).*
>>> Staffing for research and collections at the Field Museum had been on
>>> the decline for years. Beginning in 2009, between buyouts and staff leaving
>>> for other jobs, science staffing took a steep turn downward. Currently,
>>> there are only two curators in Botany and three support staff to study and
>>> manage the enormous resource. Fortunately there are three emeriti that
>>> continue to work. There are no science departments, just one “Action
>>> Science Center.” The collections are well maintained because of the
>>> dedication of collections staff but there is no real growth. However, the
>>> emphasis seems to be on marketable skills and plant taxonomy does not seem
>>> to be on the list. There is no announced plan to hire additional staff.
>>> *California Academy of Sciences** (CAS; established in 1853; 2,000,000
>>> specimens).*
>>> Recently the administration of CAS has decided to shift the focus of the
>>> museum. Established scientists were pressured into retiring, new people
>>> will be hired but they will have a significant focus on outreach using
>>> social media. Oddly this comes after the construction of a new building to
>>> house the collections.
>>> *Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew** (K; established in 1759; became a
>>> government institution in 1841; 7,000,000 specimens with well over 350,000
>>> types).*
>>> For months rumors have been in circulation about the drastic changes
>>> that are taking place at Kew. Finally enough people have visited and others
>>> have passed through US, that we are getting a better picture of what is
>>> happening. Kew, long a premier botanical institution for research and
>>> collections, is under serious attack. Reports indicate that the Herbarium,
>>> Jodrell Laboratory, and Millennium Seed Bank are to undergo drastic
>>> administrative changes and a significant reduction in science staff. The
>>> major structural change is that these three administrative units will be
>>> replaced by six focal areas: Collections, Identification and Naming,
>>> Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology, Conservation, Natural Capital, and
>>> Biodiversity Informatics. Nine people have been appointed to guaranteed new
>>> positions. Everyone else is being forced to apply for open new positions
>>> that are made available.
>>> When this crisis at Kew started 25 people decided to retire and those
>>> positions were lost altogether. That left 200 staff members in the three
>>> units. The scientific staff is scheduled to be reduced from 200 to 176
>>> which makes it seem as if only 24 positions will be lost. However this
>>> number is misleading—the 176 positions include 12 new positions in
>>> Biodiversity Informatics, at least some of which may need to be hired from
>>> outside Kew, which would further reduce the number of current Kew staff to
>>> be retained. Also, the new positions include 27 ‘Career Development
>>> Fellows,’ which are fixed non-renewable term (3-5 years) appointments
>>> designed to develop researchers from current Kew staff. These staff members
>>> are then apparently expected to seek research positions at Kew, attract
>>> independent funding, or simply become redundant and have to leave Kew.
>>> Except for the heads of the new focal areas and a limited number of new
>>> slots that are very close to existing ones, everyone else will have to
>>> apply for one or more of the positions that have been created in the new
>>> structure. Any new positions that are not filled by current Kew staff will
>>> be opened to a wider pool of applicants. It appears then that at a minimum,
>>> 24 current Kew staff members in science will lose their jobs by December 1
>>> but reason suggests that the number could be significantly higher. Taking
>>> all of this into account, the total loss of permanent jobs in science at
>>> Kew will probably be at least 50 or 25 percent of the current permanent
>>> science positions. However, if you include the 25 that took retirement the
>>> loss of science positions would be 34 percent.
>>> Equally disturbing is the division of the remaining herbarium staff into
>>> three areas: Americas, Africa, and Asia. Systematic groups such as the
>>> “Legumes” will no longer exist and the leaders and staff of these groups
>>> will have to compete for jobs with everyone else. What is striking about
>>> this is that most of the world (including Kew scientists) has been moving
>>> to synthetic work with a global focus and yet the administration at Kew is
>>> choosing to balkanize their research into areas. It is amazing that *Muséum
>>> National d'Histoire Naturelle* in Paris (P) has just worked hard to
>>> break down such barriers while Kew is building them. It makes it difficult
>>> for specialists in a particular family to view a plant group from a global
>>> perspective. Will we no longer have “world experts” at Kew?
>>> In addition, the loss of support staff at Kew will be great and that
>>> will mean that curators will have to spend more time doing technical work
>>> and less time on science. Those scientists that are able to obtain one of
>>> the herbarium positions may very well find themselves overwhelmed with
>>> collections work as well as mentoring and teaching and as a result have
>>> very little time to do research. Certainly Kew has a budget shortfall but
>>> when you balance the budget by gutting research and collections staff you
>>> fail to recognize that expertise in a group of plants is built up over many
>>> years and cannot be replicated once it is lost.
>>> Biological specimens are critical for the next frontiers of climate
>>> change studies: they provide the evidence of past as well as present
>>> distributions. A deeper understanding of life on Earth in the past can help
>>> us predict and possibly mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in the
>>> future. Such information is not readily available but it is becoming more
>>> so. For some collections it is now possible to view their data and images
>>> online and this allows us to use advanced modeling techniques to predict
>>> which species may survive and which may go extinct.
>>> Images alone are not enough. Names of organisms change frequently and
>>> these proposed changes need to be evaluated and either accepted or
>>> rejected. More importantly, a specimen is only useful if it has a proper
>>> identification. Many specimens are misidentified. Insuring that something
>>> is correctly identified requires a detailed examination of the actual
>>> specimen, usually under a microscope. As a result, all collections require
>>> constant curation to make them useful for climate change studies and other
>>> biodiversity studies. Collections that are not studied and maintained, even
>>> if they are physically well cared for, can become out-of-date and less
>>> useful.
>>> The utility of collections does not stop with climate change. If you
>>> search for “Biological Collections” in *Google Scholar*, you will find
>>> a host of references on the use of such specimens ranging from phenological
>>> data to populations trends, utility of vouchers, DNA based phylogenies,
>>> biodiversity estimates, and trait evolution.
>>> Lastly, the actions of these gardens and museums fail to take into
>>> account that to be relevant and useful collections must continue to grow as
>>> new discoveries are made. Expeditions to poorly understood areas are
>>> critical for filling in holes in our data and for collecting new material
>>> in ways that allow the preservation of genome quality tissue for new
>>> methods of investigation. It seems that just when the world is beating a
>>> path to our door and asking for help and collaboration we are closing our
>>> doors and turning them away.
>>> Here at the Smithsonian Institution we are not immune. Since I was hired
>>> in 1981, our *scientific staff* has shrunk by about 50 percent and our
>>> collections staff even more. The Botany staff at the Smithsonian is
>>> concerned about our colleagues and the collections they study, at Kew and
>>> around the world. It is troubling that there seems to be an alarming trend
>>> in museum and garden administrations to devalue collections and the staff
>>> who study and care for them. This is a critical point in time to work
>>> toward a world-wide effort to stop and reverse this attrition.
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
>>> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
>>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
>>> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>>>
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>>> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
>>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
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>>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Malcolm L. McCallum
>> Department of Environmental Studies
>> University of Illinois at Springfield
>>
>> Managing Editor,
>> Herpetological Conservation and Biology
>>
>>
>>
>> "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" -
>> Allan Nation
>>
>> 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert
>> 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,
>> and pollution.
>> 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction
>> MAY help restore populations.
>> 2022: Soylent Green is People!
>>
>> The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi)
>> Wealth w/o work
>> Pleasure w/o conscience
>> Knowledge w/o character
>> Commerce w/o morality
>> Science w/o humanity
>> Worship w/o sacrifice
>> Politics w/o principle
>>
>> Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any
>> attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may
>> contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
>> review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not
>> the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and
>> destroy all copies of the original message.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Nhcoll-l mailing list
>> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
>> http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
>> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
>> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> -So many mites, so little time!
>
> Barry M. OConnor
> Professor & Curator
> Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
> Interim Director, Museum of Zoology
> University of Michigan phone: 734-763-4354
> 1109 Geddes Ave. fax: 734-763-4080
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079 e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
>
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Department of Environmental Studies
Green Mountain College
Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
"Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan
Nation
1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert
1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,
and pollution.
2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction
MAY help restore populations.
2022: Soylent Green is People!
The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi)
Wealth w/o work
Pleasure w/o conscience
Knowledge w/o character
Commerce w/o morality
Science w/o humanity
Worship w/o sacrifice
Politics w/o principle
Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any
attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may
contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not
the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and
destroy all copies of the original message.
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