What makes science happen? Well, no doubt science is a dynamic and complex process, just check out the Science Flowchart. But no one will argue with the assertion that curiosity plays a crucial role in science, particularly the inception of a particular scientific endeavor. I once heard James Cameron say that "Science is curiosity acted upon" and while simple, it seems accurate.
Let us consider Donn Lloyd Tippett, who was a longtime volunteer with IZ, and expert systematist of gastropod snails in the family Turridae. Donn died this past January.
Donn was a professional psychiatrist and an amateur mallacologist whose work ethic and passion for gastropods led him to become an accomplished systematist of turrid snails. After his death, Alan R. Kabat wrote a wonderful and informative obituary, focusing on his malacological accomplishments, that was published in the American Conchologist, publication of the Conchologists of America.
It is always great to read about the events that spark someone's curiosity, which subsequently becomes a productive passion. How apt is Cameron's assertion that science is curiosity acted upon? Here are the words of Don Tippett, on his own scientific inspiration.
"Sea shells were a source of little familiarity or knowledge to me prior to the summer of 1967 or 1968, at which time I was in a “touristy” store in Bethany Beach. There, accompanying a friend looking for a gift, I came across the standard display of shells, laid out to show the shapes, colors and sizes of these objects. At once, taken by them, I had to have something of this fascinating conglomeration of nature’s wares. “Something” grew to about $100.00 worth, which included only a beginning of the profuse varieties available. The clerk, a seasoned student and dealer, explained much about them in the course of capturing my fancy. A beginner’s book accompanied the shells, and this provided study and a beginning to the field of what I soon learned is the field of Malacology.
Before long I received a copy of Tucker Abbott’s first edition of American Seashells. I was now hooked for sure. With this I began a program of collecting. How naïve it was, I learned later, to think I could collect a specimen of every shell. So my original plan to collect shells world-wide was gradually reduced to collecting just Atlantic shells, and then to just collecting Western Atlantic shells, then to Caribbean shells, and then to collecting only shells known as gastropods. From there I gradually began to specialize in collecting only the family Turridae – but I did begin to collect them world-wide bringing me full circle. Naturally, I had to make the transition from common names to learning the scientific names plus the classification and taxonomy involved. From a short-term intensive hobby that captured my attention and took time and money it gradually evolved into a long term, serious, and, life-long labor."
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