flaming Systematics, ochlospecies, and research

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Fred Rickson wrote:
>
> This thread brings up something we have all seen on this and other
> scientific groups... " Hi, I am going to do a project on taxa
> A, H, and Q...please tell me what is known about these organisms as I
> can't find anything." Whatever happened to initial scientific
> knowledge of something, gleaned from the literature, becoming an
> hypothesis,and perhaps the solving of a real problem by
> the process of experimentation or sampling, ensues?

* well, for sure TAXACOM isn't the peer reviewed literature. Isn't the
function of an e-mail list supposed to be the low cost of soliciting and
providing information in just this way (compared, for example, with
arranging and waiting for interlibrary loans of rare symposium volumes),
with the others on the list benefitting from the exchange by seeing what
others are asking about and what the answers are? And everybody leaning
pretty heavily on the DELETE key for threads they aren't interested in?

fred schueler
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