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Stuck at home, scientists discover new insect species
- war1025 6y agoI read the book "Never Home Alone" [1] last year. It's about all the tiny critters that are around us all the time without us noticing them. One of the things the author mentioned that stuck with me is never to assume that something you find has been documented and studied before. There is a whole lot of world out there, and only so many scientists. I believe one of the anecdotes he shared during that part was some high school kid that decided they were going to find a new species of insect. They went literally out into their yard and managed to find a novel species of butterfly or something like that. A very interesting book if anyone was looking for a recommendation. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39088985-never-home-alone https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39088985-never-home-alon...
- jdc 6y agoSeeing these discoveries happening so close to home makes me wonder how the rate of speciation compares to the rate of discovery.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoFascinating how many opportunities there are in entomology, to make a discovery. I only wish we had a picture of the entomologist. She is the nominal subject of the article, but we get only a picture of Dr. Brown her boss.
- vmception 6y agoWhat if mutations happens with much more frequency than people imagine, such that it is almost analogous to spontaneous creation sometimes - or actually is spontaneous creation. Like, natural selection and inherited mutations are just one process, and there actually is a level of spontaneity occurring. Science has a way to factor that in and update its assumptions, but not when everyone dismisses the idea because so much energy has been put into a polar opposite process.