Hi all, I have just published a new book intended for popular audiences on biological discovery (Every Living Thing: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rrdunn/Every%20Living%20Thing%20(Really).html). As a follow-up to the book I am trying to compile and put online first person accounts of biological discovery. If any of you have stories of discoveries, big or small, that you would like to share, I would like to put them online. My hope is to provide a window into what the day to day events are like when scientists make an important observation, finally understand some mysterious process, figure out some new (but thrilling) piece of natural history, or have an insight that fundamentally changes a field.
The discoveries history records and those that scientists find joy in can be very different creatures. Books tend to record the stories of a handful of big discoveries, but it is the day to day discoveries on the back of which those big discoveries come. The most exciting discoveries may seem mundane to those not involved. For example, the media loves stories of "new species discovered in Congo." But for a systematist working on a diverse and messy group that there may be little joy in discovering a new species. Greater joy may come instead from finding a new character to distinguish a group of species that had, for years, been impossible to untangle. It is that character, in this case, not the new species that makes things for the first time clear. My goal is to compile many firsthand accounts of the moments (or, in the case of some discoveries, years) of discovery. I hope these stories will be useful in allowing non-scientists and students to see a little more of what daily science and its progress are about. If you have a discovery, however small, that you would be willing to describe or if you know of published first person accounts of biological discovery that find particularly compelling, please let me know. Please put "Biological Discovery" in the title of your email. If you do decide to contribute the story of one of your discoveries, please include the details of the event. What actually happened? Walk the potential reader through the story. In addition, please feel to provide a link to relevant publications, which I will also post. I am also glad to link the stories back to your personal webpages. All accounts I receive will be posted. Thank you for your time. Very Sincerely, Rob Dunn Rob R. Dunn Assistant Professor Department of Biology North Carolina State University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
