Natural History, a Master Class

Abstract

Many people think we’re entering a golden age of genomics, with technological breakthroughs yielding an explosion of data along with unprecedented insights into the genes and molecules that underlie life. Personally, I find it all a bit dull and uninspiring. Perhaps this cynicism stems from a conversation I once had with a fanatical, eye-popping cladist who proudly told me, ‘‘We don’t need to save those tropical forests, we’ve already got samples of most of their DNA in the museums!’’ This perspective is slowly giving rise to the significantly deranged belief that we don’t need to worry about the loss of biodiversity: we’ll simply recreate it from stored DNA. The current cult of genomics and its ominous trickle-down effects on high-school biology teaching means it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the biology that surrounds us. Even so, there’s something about the natural world and its creatures that still sparks a deep fascination and likely inspired many of us to study biology in the first place. Field Notes on Science and Nature reminds us why we find nature so appealing and just how much fun getting into the field can be.