Field Notes On Science And Nature

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Science is a thought routine combined with data. But, what is a natural science and what is a social science?

What is science?

Science, all science, the procedure of profiting psychological result of perception learning and reasoning through experimentation. Science is a methodology applied to comprehend our world.

Natural sciences and social sciences are dissimilar only in what they study.

Natural sciences

Natural sciences are now and again called the hard sciences. These are subjects such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, world science, atmospheric science, materials science, and oceanography.

These fields all study the world and how it works.

Chemistry is the study of matter. When you study chemistry, you learn in regards to what makes up matter, atoms. You learn in regards to atomic structure and how molecules form and bond. You learn how matter reacts and changes state.

Earth science is the study of planet Earth. This field studies soil, geology, minerals, rocks, cherished stones, plate tectonics and volcanoes, among other topics.

Physics is the study of what composes the universe and how the forces interact with matter and each other.

Astronomy is the study of the formation and development of the universe, planets, comets, stars, galaxies, celestial mechanics, red shift, blue shift, and everything else that happens in space.

Biology is the study of living things. How to bodies work? What’s dissimilar amongst a plant and a monkey?

Social science

Social sciences still use the same methodologies as natural sciences. Data is found and analyzed. The biggest divergence for social sciences is, however, that social sciences deal with people.

Anthropology deals with how humans interact with other humans and how our cultures work.

Archaeology studies remnants of buried civilizations.

Economics is the study of money, the production of goods, and the distribution of those goods.

Human geography studies how persons are propagated on the world and how we change and manage the earth.

Education may be a science too. People study which methods are best for learning.

History is the study of the past. Since history requires the written records and anything before then is prehistory, history is likewise the study of people-people of the past.

Linguistics is the study of humane language. How did language develop? When do kids learn to speak? How do we learn multiple languages? How are the sounds and syntax dissimilar amidst languages? How does language evolve over time?

Political science deals with politics. Politics worries itself in regards to how stuff is circulated amidst people. Who gets what?

Psychology is the study of our brains. How do we think? What may go wrong with the brain? How may we fix our thoughts and behaviors?

Sociology is the study of our societies and how people relate and interact with each other. How do persons behave in society?

So, again, the natural sciences deal with the study of the universe and the earth. Social sciences deal with people.

Field Notes On Science And Nature

Once in a great while, as the New York Times noted recently, a naturalisti writes a book that changes the way humans look at the living world. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, published in 1838, was one. Roger Tory Peterson’s 1934 Field Guide to the Birds was another. How does such clear or deep perception into nature develop?

Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their native habitat, Field Notes on Science and Nature allows readers to peer over the shoulders and into the notebooks of a dozen eminent field workers, to study firsthand their observational methods, materials, and fleeting impressions.

What did George Schaller note when studying the lions of the Serengeti? What lists did Kenn Kaufman keep for the duration of his 1973 “big year”? How does Piotr Naskrecki use relational databases and electronic field notes? In what way is Bernd Heinrich’s approach “truly Thoreauvian,” in E. O. Wilson’s view? Recording observations in the field is an necessary scientific skill, but researchers are not in general more than willing to part their personal records with others. Here, for the original time, are reproductions of actual pages from notebooks. And in essays abounding with arousing and attention holding anecdotes, the writers reflect on the contexts in which the notes were taken.

Covering disciplines as diverse as ornithology, entomology, ecology, paleontology, anthropology, botany, and animal behavior, Field Notes offers specific examples that professional naturalists may emulate to fine-tune their own field methods, along with practical counsel that novice naturalists and students may use to document their adventures.

(20110514)

ReviewThere is no other book like this–one that takes readers out of the laboratory and into the field to learn the basi principles of natural history and the fun of observing nature.
–George Schaller (20110616)

This compendium comprises essays written by famous scientists like mammalogists George Schaller and Jonathan Kingdon, and plant biologist James L. Reveal. Based on their own journals, and replete with illustrations lifted straight from their field notes, the essays not only provide an clear or deep perception into the minds of world-class researchers but likewise address broader questions when it comes to the function and meaning of the field journal…While the solid observations have without doubt gone on to be employed in peer-reviewed publications, the more Darwinesque-style humane stories make for the most gratifying constituents of the book. These stories show the delightful humanity behind the scientific studies…The contributors’ ebullience and informed guidance will ring unfeigned with any individual who has expended time in the field. Although few will have the dubious privilege of having their each scribbling archived, priceless lessons are there for everyone armed with a pen and paper. In fact, the vivacity of the essays will inspire numerous to pick up a pencil and effort into the wild. I for one am left itching to get back to the bush to put what I’ve read here into practice.
–Jack Ashby (New Scientist 20110608)

Why are scientists’ field notebooks so valuable? And do notes in truth matter anymore, with international positioning systems, laptops and digital cameras available to document selective information traditionally recorded through sketches and scarcely legible scrawl? In Field Notes on Science and Nature, edited by Michael R. Canfield, more than a dozen biologists, anthropologists, geologists and illustrators explore these questions as they open up and dissect their journals, and a few of their forebears’ as well…Both [Bernd] Heinrich and [Roger] Kitching started with little besides notebooks; both have enjoyed rich scientific careers. This ought to be heartening news to any young person heading outdoors with a lot of pencils, a notebook, a gathering jar or two and no ideas whatsoever.
–Jennie Erin Smith (Wall Street Journal 20110712)

This finelooking book reproduces samples from the notebooks of 12 naturalists in all their glory, accompanied by short essays on methodology and why field notes are still so critical to the art of science…These drawings, notes (in spectacular handwriting), photos and maps are a reminder that natural history is the root of all biology, and observation is a critical skill. George Schaller’s drawings of a lion hunt in the Serengeti, Bernd Heinrich’s delicate drawings of leaves, Kenn Kaufman’s lists, Jonathan Kingdon’s drawings of acacia trees in Kenya, Jenny Keller’s spectacular drawings of moon jellies–these and others make science look not only appealing, arousing and attention holding and fun but humane and originative as well.
–Susan Salter Reynolds (Los Angeles Times 20110731)

Field Notes on Science & Nature is an eclectic collection that crosses a heap of disciplines, from geology, botany and zoology to art and anthropology. The assortment of styles and records described are fascinating–field notes are very personal. Some of the subscribers take notes altogether electronically, others in red pen in cheap notebooks. Others use pictures more than words. Few of us have the artistic attainments of Jonathan Kingdon or Jenny Keller, scientist-illustrators whose drawings alone make this book worth buying. But even the sketchiest sketch may call to mind a place or organism in a way no words can…I will alter my own note-taking after reading this set of essays. All scientists, whether based in the field or the lab, could gain from the counsel given here so eloquently.
–Sandra Knapp (Nature 20110822)

Michael Canfield’s extraordinary new book, Field Notes on Science and Nature, takes us back to a time when the notebook was a severe scientific tool: when paper-and-pencil field notebooks were “the most basic tool for studying the science of nature.” Field Notes, by beautifully reproducing dozens of pages from field notebooks old and new, reveals the primary role note-taking has played, and still plays, in scientific reasoning.
–Josh Rothman (Boston Globe online )

Michael Canfield’s Field Notes on Science and Nature raises the curtain on where “science happens,” permitting readers behind-the-scenes glances of the rough-draft places from which severe inquiry springs…This book of meditative essays is interspersed with lush facsimiles of just such notebooks, often accompanied by sketches of butterflies, charts of soil strata, or memories of weather and light. In the era of the laptop and iPhone, readers may see what the Moleskine may still accomplish as a place for thought to assemble, and detect how the act of careful recording may give rise to outstanding and significant discovery. Ranging from etymologists to paleontologists to avian specialists, the essayists assembled in this collection portion a mutual love of watching and writing, and a keen capacity to articulate how both of these things form the firstborn tier of humane investigation. Whether we’re learning the way a passing thought regarding crane flies became a invention of the way a species protects itself, or hearing regarding an expert who devised his own finely honed doctrine of list-making, or reading how diary entries with regards to raven conduct led to a book, we’re gifted with an understanding of how note-taking becomes the introductory place to frame a world…Looking at these well-kept journals is like looking into an artist’s sketchpad, a journalist’s reporting notes, or a composer’s introductory drafts. We see the action of a mind sorting out the world and framing it…Out of these drafts some essence reveals itself–and to each of these scientists this routine still has the luster of mystery. At it is base this book is in regards to science, but it’s likewise with regards to the liveliness of the humane mind practicing any craft, and regarding the kinetic, surprising places from which any humane noesis springs.
–Tess Taylor (Barnes & Noble Review )

It’s hard to believe that only two of the fourteen scientists who contributed chapters to Field Notes on Science & Nature, a study of the lasting importance of the scientist’s field journal, are formal illustrators…It was the book’s graceful design and beauteous illustrations that initial grabbed my attention. The sketches and watercolors made by scientists in real time are charming and instructive, capturing unsuspected subtle differences in meaning or opinion or attitude of the world around us…A scientist’s field diary is an intimate thing, seldom shared with outsiders. But the subscribers to Field Notes on Science & Nature have a purpose: to demonstrate the importance of the field diary in scientific study for younger generations of researchers, who receive less and less formal instruction in their graduate work in keeping and preserving field notes…What comes throughout most in Field Notes is how the creative thinking and care involved in making notes aids in thinking with regards to troubles and theories in new ways.
–Stacey Mickelbart (New Yorker blog )

This remarkable book features 14 essays written by accomplished natural scientists when it comes to scientific note-taking in the field, lavishly illustrated with examples from their field notebooks and journals…Most of the writers know the value of technology, but prefer writing in their field books. I find it freshening that these discerned scientists consider the modest pen and notebook their most essential tools…Field Notes on Science and Nature may turn out to be inspiration for a new generation exploring our natural world.
–Harvey Webster (Cleveland Plain Dealer )

Flip through the pages of a biologist’s notes and you may find sketches of plants and animals, hand-drawn maps, and the author’s occasional excessively affected emotionally exclamation or question to himself. It may be like getting an chance to listen someone think out loud. Field Notes on Science & Nature gives readers a prospect to do a good deal of eavesdropping of their own by supplying a glimpse into a few of these notebooks.
–Alyson Foster (National Geographic online )

From the Back CoverIf there is a heaven, and I am permitted entrance, I will ask for no more than an endless living world to walk through and explore. I will carry with me an unlimited supply of notebooks, from which I may send reports back to the more sedentary spirits (mostly molecular and cell biologists). Along the way I would suppose to meet kindred spirits, among whom would be the writers of the essays in this book.
–E. O. Wilson, from the Foreword (20110614)

About the AuthorMichael R. Canfield is Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won galore scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Bernd Heinrich is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont. He has written various memoirs of his life in science and nature, including One Man’s Owl, and Ravens in Winter. Bumblebee Economics was twice a campaigner for the American Book Award in Science, and A Year in the Maine Woods won the 1995 Rutstrum Authors’ Award for Literary Excellence.

Karen L. Kramer is Associate Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, at Harvard University.

Piotr Naskrecki is Post-Doctoral Fellow in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Associate in Entomology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

Roger Kitching is the chair of ecology at the Griffith School of Environment. He also heads the Arthropod Diversity Lab at Griffith University and the Biodiversity Research theme of the Centre of Innovative Conservation Strategies.

Most helpful customer reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Pure Inspiration
By John Gruber
For every one of us who has ever conducted field research or just walked into the forest, through the desert, or along the beach, this book is a delight and a treasure. A combination of instruction and inspiration, it makes the practice of keeping field notes feel like one of the most worthwhile arts, a manner of interacting as fully as possible with what we discover and documenting it for ourselves and others to profit from our experience. While there are many suggestions, ideas and approaches in the different chapters, the overall effect for me was that of being given permission to experiment with field notes, to hybridize different techniques, to adopt whatever method might best serve my own style of being in direct contact with the natural world. Even if I never intended to put into practice the methods that are described, I would find the examples of work by others utterly fascinating, an intriguing glimpse into the process of being the keenest observer of our surroundings. I hope this book will reach the hands of many explorers of all ages who will take it upon themselves to leave for future generations stacks of beautiful and insightful field notebooks that can illuminate more dimensions of the intricate world around us.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
a GORGEOUS Book!
By John Anderson
This book is a total delight! A colleague suggested it to me & as soon as i got my copy I KNEW I had to get extras for deserving students. this is a lovely mixture of Natural History observation and art covering an impressive range of people, places and periods. The book is jam-packed with ideas and suggestione for better observations, better note-taking, eyes for detail, inspiring accounts, often droll commentary…. The artwork and sample pages are very nicely reproduced, and many of the essays give priceless insights into key figures in the devlopment of Ecology (check out for instance the GREAT essay on Grinnell & the “Grinnell System” of note-taking… If this book doesn’t make you twitchy for your next field season, or wax nostalgic for your last, well, you are probably pretty close to dead Honestly, a Must Have at so many levels. get one for your self & then get copies for the budding field biologists in your lives!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A real treasure!
By K. Schneider
As an amateur naturalist struggling to find ways to record my observations of nature in a coherent way, this book was a wonderful mixture of inspiring examples and practical advice. Highly recommended!

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