Putting out fires and keeping the ship on course

What’s with the title of this blog?

Wallace is Alfred Russel Wallace, who is best know for his co-discovery – along with his more famous counterpart, Charles Darwin – of the theory of natural selection ~150 years ago. In addition, Wallace made substantial contributions to the fields of biogeography, ecology, and other areas of evolutionary theory. I’ve chosen to use his name to evoke an interest in the study of nature, which is my general area of scholarly pursuit and will be the focus of this blog. So, why does he need a fire brigade? There is a literal answer to this as well as a figurative one.

First, the literal answer. In 1852, Wallace set sail for England from S. America, where he had spent the last several years collecting specimens to sell to wealthy clients back home. This was how he funded his voyages. In contrast to Darwin, Wallace did not come from money and being a naturalist was as much a calling for him as it was a job that paid the bills. And this is why when his ship caught fire and burned down along with most of his notes and specimens mid-voyage it was doubly tragic. Wallace lost his paycheck and, presumably, he also lost momentum towards his great scientific discovery.

This leads to the second, figurative answer to why he needs a fire brigade. Scientific literacy in the United States is far from where it should be and sometimes appears to be gaining steam in the wrong direction. Good citizenship depends on an informed public and so many of the challenges that face our society and planet in the coming century will demand technical solutions and an understanding of basic science. If the public is scientifically illiterate, it portends a failure to meet these challenges appropriately. This is a dangerous fire that needs to be put out, lest it grow out of control. If we can put it out, we can keep the ship on course and shift the momentum towards meeting the scientific challenges ahead.

This blog is therefore aimed at growing scientific literacy, particularly the areas of science that I research and teach. Here, I’ll keep a running record of the scientific findings that stream across my desk weekly and of further musings on the content of the courses I’m in involved in teaching. I may also share some of my experiences of teaching at the college level.

P.S. I’m well aware that Wallace’s later interest in spiritualism conflicts with how I’ve held him up as a role model for scientific pursuit, but I’m just granting him a pass on this. Spiritualism is indeed a knock against his scientific purity, but the use of the fire brigade metaphor was too much to pass up in favor of a scientist with a cleaner record and no experiences with catastrophic fires.