Paleontology—The Adventure
Continues
1
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/people/jlipps/jlipps.html
Department of Integrative Biology & Museum of Paleontology,
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
Paleontology, a most wonderful discipline,
has had a terrific past two centuries. All of it was filled with
discovery, fascination, ideas and adventure. Not that the going
is always easy, but with the subject, we are lucky indeed. Few
have the working dimensions we do--at least four billion years of
time, the entire earth and more, and every living or once-living
thing fall under our scrutiny. We work with such a broad range of
subjects. What a joy! What intrigue! What a job! Oh, there was
controversy and more than a few were wrong, but it was exciting.
And the next couple of hundred years will remain exciting times
for paleontology, without doubt in my mind. A new journal in a
new medium at the start of a new millennium is thus an
opportunity to reflect on how lucky we are to be paleontologists
and how we can use paleontology to influence more people, more
widely than we ever imagined.
Who among us is not thrilled to do
paleontology? Who walks reluctantly to their lab or museum? Who
is not joyful to find a fossil? Who cannot think of neat ideas
about past life? Who retires completely? Paleontology is, as the
avian paleontologist Loye Holmes Miller said in reference to his
own career, "Lifelong Boyhood". That career, as with
many of us, began as a child tracking down birds and fossils and
ended only with death at age 96. So many paleontologists go that
way, thinking about one fossil or another to the very end. In a
time when 80% of the working public is unhappy with their jobs,
we in paleontology are fortunate! Scientists in general are
pretty happy people, but I think we have it better than most.
Why? Because it is so fascinating. We all
have known that since our first discovery of the field.
Importantly, most people in general learn of paleontology as
youngsters. They get just as excited and joyful about it as we
do. From presidents (Jefferson) and lesser politicians (Gingrich)
to the family next door, paleontology has attracted attention to
science as no other field, save perhaps astronomy, ever has.
Paleontology dominates the mass media and movies over all other
sciences. Sometimes we come off as a little weird or complete
wackos, but there we are on the big and little screens around the
world. Our discipline is very, very prominent. The media uses us
exactly because people everywhere will pay good money to see
paleo-topics. We can capitalize on this too, for our own benefit
and for the benefit of scientific literacy in society. For in
spite of the inherent attraction to paleontology, most people
remain nearly completely ignorant of science and how it is done.
I don't need to recall the great names in
paleontology and what they did. You know them well. Some started
little revolutions within our own branch of science, and others,
Darwin in particular, started one that resulted in a whole new
way of looking at life's history and that has had enduring impact
and controversy on just about everyone on earth. We should expect
little revolutions to continue, and maybe even another big one or
two, and this new journal will be on the forefront of
disseminating them. With it, these revolutions, our debates, and
the way we present ourselves scientifically will take on new
meaning. In Darwin's day, educated people read widely and his
"Origin" was sold out on the first day of its release.
Few science books sell that well now days, for as we have learned
more, we have become increasingly specialized. The ordinary
citizen, for lack of time and a need for programmed relaxation,
does not seek out the details but is content with the
spectacularization of paleontology in the media. No longer are we
been able to discuss meaningfully with ordinary laypersons the
significant theories and finds in our field. Those that do
attract the attention of the media are sensationalized, either
for better or worse. Our controversies, when they do make the
media, are badly distorted. All of this because of a basic lack
of comprehension about how science in general works--the
processes of critical thinking, skepticism, and evidential
reasoning to develop and test creative hypotheses.
We have in Palaeontologia Electronica
an opportunity. For the first time, we professional
paleontologists (and I include those serious people earning
livings in other fields but that write about fossils
scientifically) will be read in the homes and dens of Mr. J. Q.
Public worldwide. When fossils hit the news, you can bet that Palaeontologia
Electronica will be automatically found by all of the
Internet search engines and fed directly to people who could
never have checked the original literature in any form in the
past. Many will find us by accident, just by following the
electronic links from movie or museum sites. Everyone will be
able to see what we do. And many will. Little kids will pummel us
wanting data for their class projects, teachers will seek our
advice, young adults seeking an adventure will look to Palaeontologia
Electronica for opportunity, older people will vicariously
explore our world through the journal and try to second guess us.
We will be tested in ways we have not known and cannot
anticipate. Check out some of the general chat sites dealing with
our topics just to get an idea of what is going on out there. Now
our science and we practitioners, with Palaeontologia
Electronica, will move toward increasing publicness.
Thus, those in charge of and contributing
to Paleontologia Electronica have an added burden and
responsibility for paleontology. Not only will papers have to be
written to demonstrate good science, but they will have to
represent our discipline fairly, cogently, and with verve to a
world-wide audience. They will have to make maximum use of the
special features of this medium--sounds, videos, movies, 3-D
presentations, interactive figures and datasets, opportunity for
immediate feedback among others. We could hope for nothing
better. Here is a chance to meet directly the people who support
our science, who give us money, who practice our science in the
field and in their hobby rooms, who are curious, who are
cantankerous, who want to be involved with us, or who want to
challenge us. Let's not bore them with deadly dull stuff. Let's
not ignore them. Let's use Paleontologia Electronica to
merge research and general intrigue together in ways that will
benefit everyone. This journal must show us at our very
best--using our critical skills and evidential reasoning,
developing clearly and concisely our hypotheses, eliminating
those that fail the tests, and evaluating those that remain.
Science in action! By example, we can show the young and the old
the advantages of scientific thought in paleontology and in their
own daily lives. Keep it in mind. Write these kinds of things.
Let the editors know of new ideas. Keep them on their toes!
That's the name of the game in this new medium!