In article <6ljken$89g$1 at news.tamu.edu>, dahd <dahd at xxnospam.com> wrote:
>>And the sad fact is that there are very very serious problems with
>insect pests that need a great deal more attention and funding.
>>To name a few--
>>Fire ants throughout the South
>Termites Control
>Roach Control
>Cattle Pests of Various sorts
>Tick Control/ to control arthropod borne diseases like Lyme Disease
>and several others.
o>Mosquitos-- public health issues here. We haven't had a great
>huge encephalitis epidemic in years, but it can happen. Lots of
>other diseases transmitted by these critters too.
>>The point here is that bucks have been going to very sexy research
>areas in biotech and genetics. Great! But there is still lots of
>of biological research that needs doing.
>Underfunded areas-- Entomology, Botany, Invertebrate Zoology.
Honey bee parasitism/disease research should have been included in the
above list--we'll forgive dahd for the omission.
But molecular biology is so elegant--you just find 'em and grind 'em right?
I mean, can't _anyone_ sequence genomes now, with all the nifty software?
>Nearly dead areas of scholarship include paleontology, comparative
>anatomy, developmental embryology
>just to name a few.
>
Well, with Cladistics and the new perception that molecular genetics gives
the researcher, why mess around with these untidy disciplines, right?
>Well, resources are always limited, and we put our bucks in a targeted
>fashion on what seems important to human interest-- and by targeting
>our research we miss many opportunities for discovery through
>basic research/and luck to solve the very problems we attempt to
>deal with through targeted research.
Yep.
Adam
--
Adam Finkelstein
adamf at vt.eduhttp://sunsite.unc.edu/bees/adamf
