FOOD FOR THOUGHT

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/967/

Lindsay Selby, regular guest blogger of this parish, sent us the above link. You will remember that she is studying cryptozoological blogs for a degree, and that she has enlisted our aid. It was interesting to read the article because Brian Regal from Kean University makes some very valid points..

"The role in amateur science is extremely important in the history of science in general, especially in the West. It goes all the way back to the late 1400s here in England when the first amateur naturalists appear. What you see happening is that if you look at the history of natural history and the role of amateurs in it you see that a pattern emerges. Whenever some knowledge domain which has the potential to generate genuine scientific knowledge appears what will happen is slowly but surely members of the amateur community will become more professional. Outside professionals will become more interested. A kind of displacement occurs where as more and more genuine information is generated and mainstream science, for lack of a better term, becomes more interested in this topic more professionals will get involved and they will push out or displace the amateurs until you reach a point where the amateurs have been pushed out completely. It becomes a professional scientific discipline. We’ve seen this over and over again with fossil hunting, with ornithology and bird watching, with plant collecting, botany, marine biology. Whenever some field is begun by passionate amateurs and it has the potential to generate genuine scientific information it will eventually professionalise and the amateurs get kicked out. "

This is the situation that the CFZ hopes to avoid. Cryptozoology has to police itself if it is going to be taken seriously. That is why I have always made such a big deal about publishing our findings, and insisting on an open information policy. There are too many people in this business who try to carve out personal empires so that they can appear on tabloid TV shows and sell their latest product. And there are too many people in this business who sit around bitching about each other and claiming to be researchers when in fact they are nothing of the kind; merely members of some Internet social club, and there are too many people who equate being members of a Facebook group with actually achieving something.

This is why the CFZ is important, and will become more important as the 21st Century shudders on....