Island Press Field Notes

The recovery of black-footed ferrets is one of the success stories of conservation biology.

That might sound like a rather dry, technological subject, but it is, obviously, quite important in relation to wood production from forests. It’s also important to be able to calculate tree growth rates so we can estimate how fast forests can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as carbon.

On Monday, June 18, 1883, “Darwin’s bulldog” made a big mistake. Famous for his pugilistic defense of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Thomas Henry Huxley played a prominent role in English society—and on this particular day he was delivering the inaugural address to the assembled representatives at London’s “great International Fisheries Exhibition.” Over twenty governmental entities, some as far flung as China and Tasmania, displayed their wares at the Exhibition, so this was no small honor for the great English scientist.

Some of the best science stories seem to emerge in a three step process.  Step 1: Someone points out an error in your thinking, or you can’t let go of a nagging feeling that somehow you are wrong about what you think your data are telling you. Step 2: In a deep, and sometimes painful, exploration of what went wrong with your own analysis, you discover a systematic error in the way whole groups of researchers are thinking about the issue.  Step 3: The new story you are able to tell by looking at the data fresh turns out to be more interesting than the standard account.