This is what happens when departments/schools jump on fads and/or new ideas 100% at the expense of other areas. Today, this is happening with nanotech and bioinformatics. There is always a new wave of things to add. The problem is not sacrificing the old in pursuit of bringing in the new. This happened a while back with systematics being the victim. Then it was molecular pushing out life history biologists. Now we have bioinformatics and nano tech pushing out some of the molecular biologists and other areas.
The REAL problem is that biology is no longer a major, it is a collection of majors. There was a time when business was a major. Today, we have accounting, business law, marketing, management, etc. all as separate 4 year degrees. The life sciences are not a single thing. Just like no accountant is qualified to teach marketing, it would be a very rare thing to find an anatomist capable of teaching population ecology or a molecular biologist teaching behavioral ecology. The one mistake people make is that today, the tools of molecular biology are generally known by most phds when they graduate. Heck, I was teaching students to ELISA, Enzyme restriction, electrophoresis, fingerprinting in genetics and cell. I look at it much like spreadsheets in the 1970s, or maybe computers in general. Today, everyone knows the tools. But, its the deep embedded theory that they don't know. Biology is not a major, and schools should refrain from teaching it as one. You might have individuals who cross over among 1-2 of these areas, but all of them? yeah right. I've been faced with that challenge in the past, good luck with that. organismic biology molecular biology anatomy and physiology ecology microbiology medical laboratory Then the related majors of that have multidisiplinary components from other non-science fields... environmental science natural resource management (including fish and wildlife) environmental health public health pre-allied health & allied health pre-professional (med/dent/..etc.). No, biology is not a major. At most universities, it should probably be more along the lines of a school or a college. M On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 9:07 AM, David L. McNeely <[email protected]> wrote: > I have been observing this for some time now. Organisms and their habitats > are being written out of biology, so far as direct experience with them is > concerned. We soon will have no means of knowing what is going on in nature, > as no one will be investigating nature, or even have a clue as to how to do > so. It is somewhat disconcerting to attend conferences and witness paper > presentations where it is clear that the presenter has never seen a living, > wild specimen of the organism being reported on and would not know how to go > about finding one. > > The Southwestern Association of Naturalists has recently approved, to be > awarded for the first time at its annual meeting in San Diego next April, a > new Student Field Natural History Award. Details concerning this competition > will be available on the SWAN web site and in the annual call for papers, but > essentially it provides a prestigious award and a monetary prize for the > outstanding paper which includes a substantial field component presented by a > student member at the annual meeting. More details will appear on the SWAN > web site and in the annual call for papers for next year. To qualify for the > competition, the investigation reported on must have been carried out on the > natural history (essentially ecology and evolution) of organisms in the > southwestern portion of North America (as defined by SWAN) where they occur > in their environments. > > I would encourage ESA and other societies to consider implementing awards for > field based studies. > > David McNeely > > ---- David Inouye <[email protected]> wrote: >> I'm posting this for a colleague who wanted to remain anonymous but >> would be interested in your comments. We've suffered the same loss of >> field-based courses at the University of Maryland, but I think for >> other reasons. >> >> David Inouye >> >> My ecology/evolution/plant diversity students are always shocked when >> I tell them about one way in which the shift towards genomics in >> ecology and evolution is largely responsible for the disappearance of >> almost all field courses in my department (and probably >> elsewhere). I don't think that this is exactly what you had in mind >> regarding an example of "how rapidly and significantly ecological >> science and evolution are changing", but I don't think it's too off-track. >> >> We now have six evolutionary biologists in my department (including >> myself), and only one of us (me) does any field work other than to >> find-and-grind organisms for genomics work. The rest is computer >> modeling and lab work, conducting Petri-dish and vial-based >> experiments with flies or microorganisms. Not surprisingly, these >> lab-based faculty are not only pale and wan, but they're completely >> uninterested in -- and dismiss as too "noisy" -- field experiments >> aimed to detect the process or outcome of natural selection in wild >> populations. So, not only are they unable to teach field-based >> courses (or even to run local field trips), but they're now raising a >> cohort of graduate students who are exactly the same. While genomics >> can answer certain kinds of questions in evolutionary ecology and >> detect phylogenetic patterns that population-based studies of natural >> selection cannot, I think it's really important to inform >> undergraduates about this major political and financial shift in >> evolutionary research, and to point out the kinds of questions that >> cannot be addressed with genomics. >> >> Invariably, these students are very surprised to learn that this is >> part of the story explaining the demise of field courses. At my >> institution, their lack of field experience prevents them from being >> outraged, as they don't know what they're missing. > > -- > David McNeely -- Malcolm L. McCallum, PHD, REP Department of Environmental Studies University of Illinois at Springfield Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology “Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.” -President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 into law. "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. 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