Timely quotes about science: Science Rules

Hi there! Greetings from the blog-verse. Here I share some interesting, inspirational, and timely quotes about science from some of the greatest minds of our time. Enjoy and remember the wisdom of these wise men.

"Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false"  E. O. Wilson

"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely"  E. O. Wilson

"Political ideology can corrupt the mind and science" E. O. Wilson

"There is no greater education than the one that is self-driven" Neil deGrasse Tyson

"Science simply tells the best stories" Neil deGrasse Tyson

"When you make the finding yourself even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light, you'll never forget it" Carl Sagan

"Science rules" Bill Nye

Public Connotation : Theory or Hypothesis?

Most people do not know the difference between a theory and a hypothesis. These two terms hold different connotations and meaning for the public than does for scientists--or at least science trained. 

Page from Charles Darwin's diary
 (courtesy of Darwin Online).

In science, a theory is a well-supported fact. It is supported and corroborated by many tests or experiments and observations. Examples of theories in science include the theory of evolution in Biology, the theory of plate tectonics, theory of gravitation, the theory of Relativity, and the laws of photoelectric effects(which by the way is one of Einstein's greatest contribution to science which gained him the Nobel Prize in theoretical physics in 1921, but I digress). These theories are not conjecture and are considered facts because they have been proven over and over again, consistently, and are in a way, predictable. No serious person, in my opinion, doubts gravity. 

A scientific hypothesis is a question or idea that remains to be proven--meaning it is not yet quite a theory or law; more observations and experimentation is needed to corroborate it or disprove it. For example, the hypothesis that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, or whether natural selection is the main mechanisms of speciation--the source or origin of species, or the currently hot hypothesis of human-induced climate change. These are scientific hypotheses. 

An important aspect of hypotheses is that they must make testable predictions. If a hypothesis does not make a prediction or gives it certain qualities that allow the researcher to test it, then the hypothesis make the logical fallacy of being empty. An empty hypothesis thus makes no prediction and is untestable. One could never know whether is true or conjecture and would have to speculate always on its foundation. An example of this is that of the Bermuda Triangle, but that's for another post. These are the meaning of a scientific theory and hypothesis as intended.

The public, however, uses the term theory with another meaning. For instance, the theory that Big Foot exists, or the theory of Kennedy's assassination, or even of ancient aliens, gave rise to our most important civilizations. These in reality, if there is any serious intention, are only hypotheses. They still require much more convincing evidence in order to be proven or disproven. But they are by no means theories or laws, they are still hypotheses.

So there, the public confuses the meaning of the terms hypothesis and theory. You may hear it on the news or read it on social media. But these vehicles only seem to obscure and contort the meaning of these two terms, which results in a confused usage by the public, leading to the misusage of the term theory when is really meant hypothesis.

Famous Charles Darwin "I Think" quote.
Charles Darwin diary courtesy of Darwin Online. 

I recommend, although in my very own biased way, two books that can expand on these topics, and help in our ever-continuous battle against science illiteracy in the World. One is "Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future" (2010) by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Basics Books, New York. The second is Donald Prothero's (2007) "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters" Columbia University Press, New York. 

Columbus and Rediscovery of the New World

In October we celebrate Christopher Columbus's rediscovery of the New World.

On October 11, 1492, Rodrigo de Triana shouted "land!" from the mast of the Santa Maria. The next morning, on the island of Guanahani, modern Bahamas, Columbus and his crew began an unprecedented conquest of the Americas that involved the extinction of thousands of species and the introduction of many others.

Engraving from 1496 showing explorers on their way to the New World. 

The most expensive, and even outrageous of human enterprises have been military in nature. Science usually tags alongside such enterprises, but not riding shotgun. Columbus's exploration was funded by the interest of the Spanish sovereigns in search of new riches and a military position that could compete with the growing powers of Portugal and England. And although it brought map makers (cartographers), cosmographers, and geographers, scientific interest was low in his first voyages. 

It was only after that science extended its arms outwards, alongside colonization. Soon after the rediscovery--and I continue to use the term rediscovery because humans had already discovered the American continent some 15,000 years before, and northern Europeans 1000 years earlier--native Amerindians succumbed to the new colonist's diseases, enslavement, and weapons. Unfortunately, the science that came along was opportunistic and cast a heavyweight on the existence of many native species with scant documentation.

The first colonists had to eat off the land, and in many cases brought with them animals that soon became feral where they did not evolve or were not suited for ecologically, driving other native species to extinction.

Native fruit plants from an engraving in Benzoni's Historia del Mondo Novo (1563).

An interesting case is that told by father Bartolome de la Casas. In 1512, during the official exploration and conquest of Cuba by Diego Velazquez, he and his crew killed and ate thousands of Cuban macaws (Ara cubensis) in Casaharta, a town in central-northern Cuba.
The Cuban macaw has been extinct in Cuba since the 19th century but had been rare since the 18th century, when deforestation and overhunting for its beautiful feathers drove it to rarity, and later extinction. In the mid 19th century, the German naturalist Johannes Gundlach found it in the Zapata Swamp, southwestern Cuba.
A similar case has occurred to the Cuban crows (Corvus minutus and Corvus nasicus), and the Cuban ivorybill woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) to name a few.  These species had survived at least a million years of climate change, and over 5000 years of Amerindian coexistence, to become extinct during the colonization (see some of my own research on this here).

But the scientifically inclined explorers served well by documenting what they could about the lush natural richness of the Americas. Among them, Peter Martyr, a geographer, was the first historian of the New World. Others such as the Spanish Oviedo and the Italian Benzoni included detailed accounts of the native species found in the American Eden. Plants, animals, and even cryptic mythological creatures were initially described, such as the manati, a water mammal though to be a siren. Its scientific mammalian order--Sirenia--carries the idiosyncrasies of the era that brought it--through science--to world knowledge.

Engraving of a manati, a sirenian marine mammal as described by Oviedo in his
Historia General de las Indias (1547).

Progressus: A project for Cuban Archaeology

Several months ago I expressed my excitement in becoming part of the archeological project Progressus. Since then, I have collaborated with Odlanyer Hernandez, Boris Rodriguez, Cristian de la Rosa, Leonel P. Orozco, Jorge Garcell, and Ricardo A. Viera (to name a few); all Cuban archeologists and historians at the front of archaeological research, and concerned with the integration of archaeological and historical data in the rescue and preservation of Cuban cultural heritage.

Since then, Ricardo Viera and I have written two small notes on several aspects of Matanzas history and archaeology. One is dedicated to the bombardment of the city of Matanzas 27 April 1898. This was the first bellic act of the Spanish-Cuba-American war soon after the USS Maine blew in the bay of Havana on February 15 of that same year. The other pertains to our research on the archaeology of clay tobacco pipes excavated from fort Castillo de San Severino and published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, aforementioned here.

Some of our colleagues and members of Progressus mentioned above contributed greatly to this research since many of them have published extensively on the fort's archaeology. It is my pleasure to be able to contribute to their great body of research and to be part of their team. Moreover, there are plans of making Progressus a great venue for international collaboration, including Argentinean, Swedish, Cuba, and American researchers to deepen our understanding of Cuban historical archaeology.

Please visit Progressus blog here to meet our colleagues, and to stay informed on our work, contributions, and future plans. There you will find articles, photographs, and articles on battlefields, fortifications, and artifacts related to the local history of Matanzas, Cuba. There are surely interesting findings down the pike, as we continue to unravel our common history.

Stay tuned for more news!

The living cave floor: intro to cave faunas

E. A. Martell, one of the first professional cave explorers, expressed in 1894 that "caverns and abysses are natural laboratories ready for numerous and curious researchers".

Those who visit caves frequently notice that some caves are alive! Walk into a cave room and with a swipe of the lantern you see the cave floor move! - Seems like something out of a horror film, but caves are truly alive.

Cave roaches of the family Polyphagidae, scavengers of the guano cave floors. This is an example of a guanophile troglobites. 

Caves are alive because they are teeming with life. From the microscopic viruses and bacteria to the much more complex bats, and even humans, caves provide a subterranean environment that is both beautiful and mysterious, resulting in the specialization of extraordinary organisms.

American roach Periplaneta americana (Blattidae) another common cave scavenger. 

The subterranean world is a complex environment. In caves, light enters unevenly. The deepest rooms, those farthest away from the entrance are the darkest if no other source of light exists. But even in such absence of light, organisms proliferate and evolve. These cave organisms can be defined or grouped depending on their cave habitat and preferences. Each has its own niche.

Troglobites are organisms that are strict cave dwellers, and complete their life cycles deep inside caves. Troglophiles are occasional cave dwellers. They do not complete their life cycle inside the cave, but they could if needed or preferred. They can be facultative cave inhabitants.

Trogloxenes, on the other hand, are similar to troglophiles in that they too are facultative cave dwellers, but their life cycles always require they leave the cave, surfacing to eat or reproduce. In this case, most organisms that people associate with cave dwelling are readily trogloxenes. Bats, birds like oil birds, owls, swallows, some reptiles, amphibians, and several species of insects, are all trogloxenes.

Cavernicolan glowworm in a cave in the Dominican Republic. Photographs courtesy of Adrian Tejedor. This is the larval state of a trogloxene arthropod. It is bioluminescent and truly interesting to observe. 

Other cave organisms are strictly aquatic cave dwellers. These are called stygobites, for they can only live in cave ponds or lakes. The blind fish and arthropods that live in vadose water lakes found within deep parts of a cave system represent this group. These organisms are very specialized. They have adapted to the dark aquatic environments and have lost their eyesights, color pigmentation, or eyes altogether.

There are organisms that can be considered accidentals because they enter caves by falling in, or because they are momentarily attracted by food or shelter inside. These include several mammals such as rodents and carnivores, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and many arthropods. Troglodyte is a term reserved for humans who use caves as a home or shelter. Humans have been using caves since the paleolithic, nearly a million years ago!

A carcass of a Cuban fruit-eating bat Artibeus jamaicensis eaten by
cave roaches of the family Polyphagidae: scavengers or the cave floor.
Cueva de Los Nesofontes, Mayabeque, Cuba 2003.

Caves not only provide secluded microclimates but microhabitats that are richly ecologically stratified and interconnected. An example is illustrated by numerous species of different bacteria and arthropods, that as an adaptation, live off the bat droppings (or guano) deposited in cave floors. These are known as guanophiles and are often troglobitic arthropods.

Plants growing from seeds brought in the excrement
of fruit bats A. jamaicensis. The Dominican Republic, 2004.

Trogloxenes often serve as the food of troglobites. Many are scavengers that feed on decomposing matter brought in by other organisms, such as seeds brought in by fruit bats, or the dying bats themselves, as is the case of the Cuban fruit bat Artibeus jamaicensis carcass devoured by cave-floor roaches in a cave in Cuba shown above.
Many of these organisms are agents of bone accumulations and dispersion within caves, a micro-field within taphonomy that I am most interested in. See my previous ruminations on this previous post.

Decomposed and guano-buried funnel-eared bat Natalus major eaten by small cave-floor ticks genus Pantricola (?). Los Haitises, the Dominican Republic, 2004.

A wide variety of organisms has evolved in caves. These are characterized by intricate specializations such as staged reproduction cycles, feeding mechanisms, or sensitivities to light that allows them to exist only in the intricate microclimates-ecosystems found in the subterranean world. Such diversity and these special characteristics have been naturally selected over millennia depending on the distribution of these organisms and the niches they inhabit withing the geography of a cave.

Cave lake in the interior of Feather's Cave, Matanzas, Cuba.This lake used to have blind fish of the genus Lucifuga. 

Most of troglobites and trogloxenes are relics of the past. Some of the aquatic stygofauna are descendants of freshwater, intertidal, or marine organisms that became trapped in a cave pools and lakes, becoming isolated there. Most of them evolved from exterior faunas that adapted to the cave conditions after isolation.

Cuban boa Chilabrothus angulifer on the hunt for fruit bats. Nesofonte's Cave, Mayabeque, Cuba. This species is a trogloxene that uses caves as a refuge, for feeding and reproduction. These reptiles have adapted to hang from the walls and catch flying bats. 

Exterior faunas enter caves with inflowing rivers, floodwaters, and groundwaters that invade, actively or passively, cave environments. Others become trapped or fall in accidentally as mentioned before. More so, streams and rivers can carry inside sediment and plant debris often carrying organisms from the exterior into the cave. These organisms then become underground colonizers, evolving in isolation from their exterior populations. The cave itself being the barrier to their gene flow.

Cave gours or pools from Bellamar's Cave, in Matanzas. Some of the green and red films that can be seen represent cyanobacteria that live off the chemicals of the rocks and the dim light that is artificially provided by the tour lamps (they are photosynthetic, thus needing light). 

But caves are sensitive environments and even the most minute changes can alter their microhabitats. Alterations to these delicate subterranean environments include hoards of people using caves as a tourist attraction, or "collecting" their endemic faunas or crystal formations, often downgrading their natural beauty. Or affecting their natural flora and fauna, thus affecting the natural cycles that occur within caves. Cave microenvironments are also sensitive to overall climate change, and rising sea levels. The former have the potential to drown existing habitats, and thus pushing many cave endemics to extinction or habitat fragmentation.

The isolation of subterranean environments makes cave faunas interesting subjects to the study of evolutionary pathways, genetics, biogeography, and even virology (-the Ebola and Zaire viruses seem to have evolved in African cave environments-). Some biologists consider caves even as islands, isolated natural laboratories for evolution and natural selection. 

I think Martell was right. And like him, and many other generations of cave scientists, also known as speleologists, we continue to be attracted to caves and their intricacies. We study and divulge the beauty and complexity of caves and cave systems with the hope of understanding such environments and ecosystems better, hopefully helping us protect and understand their faunas more effectively. 

I hope this post has been informative of other interesting aspects of caves since I have already covered bats, hot caves, and cave formation in my previous posts. This post is in honor of those who dedicate their time, and often health, to study caves and unraveling the mysteries of the subterranean world.

Stay tuned for more future ruminations on caves and cave faunas!