Botany

[FayetheAspie]

Did anyone else like examining and classifying plant species according to systems such as monocots vs dicots and trying to tell everyone about them?

 

[FayetheAspie]

I think that my grandparents could hardly stand it.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I never liked the "squishy sciences" I preferred physics and chemistry. I did my share of infodumping those

 

[FayetheAspie]

I liked chemistry myself. Especially the experiments.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I never liked the "squishy sciences" I preferred physics and chemistry. I did my share of infodumping those

What do you mean by "squishy sciences?"

 

[Jumpinbare]

Biological, medical, mental, socialogical

 

[Au Naturel]

Biological, medical, mental, socialogical

Biology is much less "squishy" than it was when I was a kid. So many things are understood that once were only guessed at. There is a lot more "science" in the science today. Personally, I find quantum mechanics to be squishy.

Medicine, and particularly psychology and sociology, are going through a replication crisis. Many experiments cannot even be repeated, let alone replicated.

My wife is a retired RN. She told me how her workplace was instituting evidence-based nursing. It was a radical concept that nursing practices should be based on an analysis of whether they were successful rather than a theory of how things should be done. At least as far as nursing goes, it has never been scientific. People deduced how they thought it should be done and wrote it into the textbooks as fact, but there were rarely any supporting experiments or studies. Often, it turned out ok, but there were also a lot of suboptimal results.

Until very recently psych has just been a competition between different schools of philosophy. Only recently has anyone even tried to address this.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201601/the-is-psychology-science-debate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis
Sociology suffers from psychology's problems squared.

 

[Crossbreed]

I am more interested in animal taxonomy than plant taxonomy. The [morphology-based] Linnaean system that I grew up with is being replaced by [DNA-based] molecular systematics.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I am a botanist and a plant taxonomist.

After reading the previous posts, I am more ashamed of admitting that than I would be if I were admitting to necrophilia.

 

[MC1Rcat]

Plants and trees have always been a special interest of mine since I was young. My mom used to take me to plant nurseries and we would look at plants for fun. I don't know the scientific names of all the plants, but I can identify most by layman's terms and love watching gardening shows. When I was in undergrad college, a classmate and I did a project that catalogued and mapped all of the trees in one large section of Prospect Park and compared it to the original planting map from it's inception in the 1860s. It was fascinating to see how many trees survived all that time. We gave the info to the Parks dept. there and they were really thankful, since there was no record or map of all of the current trees. They were in the process of restoring parts of the park due to damage from Hurricaine Sandy, and our data included notes of damaged or fallen trees. It is interesting to note that a lot of non- native trees were planted originally, mostly ornamental species, and now, the Parks dept is trying to only plant trees native to the NY area and are removing some of the young invasive species trees before they get too big.

 

[MC1Rcat]

I am a botanist and a plant taxonomist.

After reading the previous posts, I am more ashamed of admitting that than I would be if I were admitting to necrophilia.

I think you should be proud to be a Botanist! It is a very important science. One big reason is that most of the medicines we have today (or the knowledge of those compounds), came from someone's discovery or knowledge of plant medicine. There are still people looking through the rainforests of South America for new plants/ compounds that could be used to cure diseases, especially cancer.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Does anyone how how to go about getting a job at a botanical or soil/water quality lab if your local college does not offer relevant degrees. I have always enjoyed using microscopes and doing science experiments and I had high grades in school. However, I ended up stuck working in a busy super center that was a very bad environment for me for almost a decade. Just entering the building as a customer had always made me feel disoriented. I am currently out of work and trying to find a job. Any suggestions ?

 

[saturnv]

Biology is a hard science. Comparing it to psychology and sociology is laughable to me considering much of biology is applied physics and chemistry.

I love plants. Botany was one of my favorite classes that I got to take in college.

I am a botanist and a plant taxonomist.

After reading the previous posts, I am more ashamed of admitting that than I would be if I were admitting to necrophilia.

Being a botanist is extremely cool in my book.

 

[TBRS1]

I love things that grow. I spend about 80% of my time wandering around the forest.

I walk around thinking "sumak, sarsapirilla, Canadian bundle berry, false Solomon's Seal, forest violet, etc." as I pass them...

 

[Crossbreed]

After reading the previous posts, I am more ashamed of admitting that than...

I cannot think of any reason why you should be so ashamed.
My preference for zoological taxonomy is tangential to one of my major interests, figure drawing.

 

[MC1Rcat]

Does anyone how how to go about getting a job at a botanical or soil/water quality lab if your local college does not offer relevant degrees. I have always enjoyed using microscopes and doing science experiments and I had high grades in school. However, I ended up stuck working in a busy super center that was a very bad environment for me for almost a decade. Just entering the building as a customer had always made me feel disoriented. I am currently out of work and trying to find a job. Any suggestions ?

If you live in the USA, you could probably look into government jobs (state or federal) that deal with water or soil quality or environmental regulation (EPA). My brother has a degree as an environmental engineer and he works for the state of Louisiana's Department of Health. He manages a department that regulates water quality in his area. They deal with local drinking water quality and send people out to test groundwater and streams/ rivers for farm runoff (animal waste, pesticides), chemicals from local industry, as well as water quality after flooding from hurricaines, etc. I know they hire college students who are studying environmental engineering. Also, some factories have their own people who test water and soil quality from any runoff from their facilities (a health and safety officer.) You could also maybe work as a lab technician in a place that processes the soil and water samples that need testing (for either government or universities). A lot of places outsource their samples to professional labs. You would probably need a degree in biology or biochemistry to work in a place like that. You could always call and ask what their requirements are for hiring.

 

[Au Naturel]

I cannot think of any reason why you should be so ashamed.
My preference for zoological taxonomy is tangential to one of my major interests, figure drawing.

Very cool! I spent a lot of time on the other side of the canvas. It was a wonderful experience.

 

[MROSS]

In venturing through any natural landscape, I wonder how global climate change has altered the landscape. It would be intersing to venturing through landscape with a docet / guide who is knowledgable in how global cliamte change has played roles.

Most of the time, I'm eager to take photographs, and relax in natural landscapes.

 

[Jumpinbare]

In venturing through any natural landscape, I wonder how global climate change has altered the landscape. It would be intersing to venturing through landscape with a docet / guide who is knowledgable in how global cliamte change has played roles.

You're only likely to see that in boundary areas - coastlines, transitions from one biome to another, etc.

 

[Au Naturel]

You're only likely to see that in boundary areas - coastlines, transitions from one biome to another, etc.

Mountains are perfect for it. Every 50 meters elevation gain is like traveling a degree closer to the poles. You can travel from deep desert to above the tree line in a day.