Why Descriptive Science Still Matters

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Issue Date
2007-09-01Author
Grimaldi, David A.
Engel, Michael S.
Publisher
American Institute of Biological Sciences
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
“Descriptive” in science is a pejorative, almost always preceded by “merely,” and typically applied to the array of classical -ologies and -omies: anatomy, archaeology, astronomy, embryology, morphology, paleontology, taxonomy, botany, cartography, stratigraphy, and the various disciplines of zoology, to name a few. But there is chronic misunderstanding as to what descriptive science actually is, and thus there is ignorance of its significance. This in turn imperils these disciplines and even the existence of fundamental knowledge in academia, as recent history teaches us.
ISSN
0006-3568Collections
Citation
Grimaldi, David A.; Engel, Michael S. (2007). "Why Descriptive Science Still Matters." BioScience, 57(8):646-647. http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1641/B570802
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