Slow Science III - The Death of the Sniper Scientist - part a.

In my previous post, I asked you who was the man in the image. The reason I wanted to know if you knew - is because I didn’t have a clue when my officemate, Phylogenisto asked me.

Phylogenisto, is an awesome officemate because he just as passionate about his science as I am about mine. And although he talks my ear off at length about the taxonomy wars, I get a chance to shoot the scientific shit with him. Something I didn’t have at SmallUniversity. Plus, he is an example of the sniper scientist species, that I believe is becoming extinct in our discipline.

Phylogenisto is the kind of scientist who knows inside and out the families he works with at all levels. If you were to take a walk through the proverbial "woods," he could identify different species, their natural history, morphological characteristics, odd features about their anatomy, as well as the resolved and unresolved evolutionary relationships in the group. Phylogenisto spends an incredible number of hours painstakingly hand drawing images of the anatomy of the different species he studies, because in his words, “The only way to understand or intuit the function of a trait, is to draw it.” And he spends his spare time fashioning specimen collections like many of the old scientific masters, such as Alexander von Humboldt, the man in the picture.

So when I didn’t know who was Alexander von Humboldt, it clearly disturbed Phylogenisto. In fact, it upset him so much that he began to pace back and forth in front of his desk, speaking in his native German tongue.

"Umm, Who is Alexander von Humboldt? I asked.



“Come on. No. You’re kidding me. He’s only the most famous scientist next to Darwin and Wallace,” he said dumbfounded. [I have that effect on many people including my former PhD supervisor, who on occasion used to give me, what we grad students affectionately called "the snowblink look."]

“Really? If he’s so famous how come I’ve never heard of him.”

[I realize only after I made this statement how much it oozed the entitlement generation. As if fame only comes if I know who the person is. Besides, I can’t really describe myself as a connoisseur of fame, considering that I didn’t know Tiger Woods cheated on his wife.]

“He is only the last great scientist of the modern age.”

Okay peeps, this man is the lead in to my next post, which will examine the death of the sniper scientist in the modern era. But I want some participation first. So tell me without doing a google search if Alexander von Humboldt was a

a. Biologist.
b. Meterologist.
c. Geologist.
d. Physical Geographer.
e. Botanist.
f. Philosopher.
g. German Explorer and Biogeographer.


Don't be shy! I really do want to hear from you.