When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. — John Muir You don’t have to be a scientist to know and love the monarch butterfly. That iconic, fluttering orange-and-black creature represents a harbinger of summer, of happiness, and of beauty. Not only does it […]
It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in armed conflict. — Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, former U.N. force commander, 2008 On Nov. 6, 238 scientists (predominantly women) signed a proclamation titled “A call for inclusive conservation” in the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal Nature (Volume 515, pages 27-8). It was 1920 […]
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. — Albert Einstein Did you know that a hundred trillion microbes live in your digestive system, and yet almost nothing is known about them? Our own bodies house one of the highest-biodiversity ecosystems on the planet, and only in the past year or […]
Imagination is more important than knowledge. — Albert Einstein The era of “citizen spies” is upon us! “CSI: Miami,” take note. Many conservation biologists, geologists, public health specialists and nonprofits are building up a new army, called UAVs (Unmanned aerial vehicles) or “drones,” which are low-cost surveillance technologies that can fly over sites and capture […]
A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision and a task is the hope of the world. — From a church in Sussex, England c. 1730 When I was in graduate school studying ecology during the 1980s, we all shared a conviction to make the […]
When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web … Now even my cat has its own page. — Former President Bill Clinton Much of my global forest conservation work takes me to remote parts of the planet, including India. The culture of India is vibrant, […]
Most children have a bug period. — E.O. Wilson, Harvard entomologist and biodiversity expert I love insects, which is probably why I became a scientist focusing on these extraordinary critters and their relation to plants in the forest canopy. But insects also love me. Working in Ethiopia recently proved no exception. After one short hour […]
The nation behaves well if it treats natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value. … Conservation means development as much as it does protection. — Theodore Roosevelt While some countries are struggling to get electricity, others are trying desperately to turn off the […]
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is now. — African proverb I am swallowing mouthfuls of dust each day, driving long distances in Ethiopia during the dry season. The majority of roads are not only dusty, but the dirt surfaces give us a rodeo-ride experience in […]
A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician; he is a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales. — Marie Curie In 2012, the obvious science breakthrough of the year was the discovery in Switzerland of the Higgs boson, a watershed event that finally allowed physicists to […]
