2022-07-01 12:33:14
This week we are going to resume an episode of the Quilo vintage series, published almost twenty years ago, in August 2002. Already at that time, Western societies were concerned about the degradation of the environment and the attacks that human activity inflicted on Nature. .
Many species of animals and plants are directly affected due, above all, to the use of pesticides to control pests. The subject I am talking about today is related to the effect of these substances on a species of toad. You will see that history contains the most important components of scientific research: the observation of a phenomenon; the formulation of hypotheses, that is, of ideas, of possibilities, to try to explain it; conducting well-designed and controlled experiments to confirm or refute hypotheses and, finally, interpreting the results of such experiments to reach the most likely conclusion. Thus, the story that I am going to tell you today not only recounts a discovery, but also stops to explain, you will see that in such a simple way that even the grandmother of one of the main toads could understand it, how said discovery is achieved. It is science in its purest form.
That article published in 2002 began like this
“Since 1995, specimens of deformed toads have been observed in the center of the North American continent, in the region between the United States and Canada. The Sherlock Holmes or Hercules Poirots of science, depending on one’s preference, have been struggling for years trying to understand the mysterious and sudden appearance of toads with deformities in their limbs, particularly their hind limbs.
The existence of these deformities alarmed biologists and ecologists. For many, they indicated a clear deterioration of the environment in which these animals live, which in the end is only a part of planet Earth where, for the moment, we all live. The most likely hypothesis, shared by many scientists, was that some type of pesticide or chemical contaminant was causing the deformities.”
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Regardless of the concern that Dr. Kiesecker’s results arouse, I believe that his experiments clearly show the powerful beauty of science. One falls prey to its spell almost as Odysseus fell under the spell of the sirens’ song. He is willing to give up everything, unless, like Ulysses, he does not tie himself to the ship’s mast so as not to jump into the water in search of him, at the risk of drowning. And it is that powerful is also the charm of science when it touches our reasoning with its elegance.
Research on pesticides as a cause of deformities, infertility, excess mortality, etc., of various species has been intense in the last twenty years. More than three thousand scientific articles have been published on the subject, none of which seem to indicate any positive effect of pesticides on the environment. However, it is no less true that without the use of pesticides and insecticides, Humanity’s food would be much more threatened than it already is.
And it is that perhaps life is a constant magnitude, a magnitude that at most can be transformed, but cannot increase indefinitely once it reaches a maximum on a planet like ours. If so, increasing the prevalence of one or a few particular species could only be achieved by decreasing the prevalence of the others on a planet already saturated with life. This is unfortunately what seems to be happening. Many scientists warn that we are immersed in the sixth mass extinction that has occurred in the history of the Earth. This extinction is not being caused by a volcanic catastrophe or by the collision of a meteorite, but by the uncontrolled explosion of life on the part of a species, ours, and of the few other species that we raise and cultivate to feed ourselves.
Jorge Laborda (07/01/2022)
Works by Jorge Laborda.
Your defenses against coronavirus
Your defenses against coronavirus
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Kilo of Science Volume XII eBook
Kilo of Science Volume XII Paper
Kilo of Science Volume I. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume II. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume III. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume IV. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume V. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VI. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VII. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VIII. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume IX. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume X. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume XI. Jorge Laborda
Matrix of homeopathy
Chained circumstances. Ed.Lulu
Chained circumstances. Amazon
One moon, one civilization. Why the Moon tells us that we are alone in the Universe
One moon, one civilization. Why the Moon tells us that we are alone in the Universe
One Moon one civilization why the Moon tells us we are alone in the universe
The thousand and one bases of ADN and other science stories
Adenius Fidelius
The intelligence funnel and other essays
The gods have been cloned
#Cienciaes.com #case #deformed #toads