As a palaeontologist, I'm constantly confronted with the question about the value of the kind of work that I do. There are areas of science that are clearly goal-directed, particularly when it comes to questions of technology and applications in day-to-day life. But my science isn't likely to affect the daily lives of most people, but it is the general population that pays for my kind of work. One of the primary defences of basic science that I have seen time and again is that we simply don't know what science needs to know. That is, basic science deals with what I call "Rumsfeld's Problem". However, I have always found that argument to be unpersuasive.
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Martin d brazeauPalaeontologist, fieldworker, sometimes phylogenetic programmer. Transplanted Canadian in UK. All views are my own. How to pronounce my name? Rhymes with "bureau" or "chateau". He/him/his. Archives
December 2022
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