Back in 2006 a group of scientists pulled a deep sea clam out of the ocean and discovered that it was a whopping 400 years old. It was a very impressive find and to preserve it the scientists did what they had always done with deep sea clams, which was put it in the freezer. Unfortunately, as it turns out this particular clam was like most senior citizens, in that it hated being cold and the clam died while in the freezer. So much for doing no harm. (Do marine biologist have to take a version of the Hippocratic Oath?) Making it even worse is they did some follow-up examinations and discovered the clam was even older than previously thought, having been born in 1499. Now, I am sure the scientists were just doing what they had been taught to do but this is exactly the kind of blind, follow-the-regulations thinking that I believe gets us into trouble. For example, I don't know anything about deep sea clams but I know that if you want to keep anything alive putting it in the freezer sounds like a really bad idea, so I probably would have double-checked with someone if that it what we should be doing. Even if that weren't the case, shouldn't these biologist know by now that not all animals react to cold the same way and been observing the clam to make sure it wasn't about to freeze to death? Maybe my way takes a little longer, but at least then we wouldn't have killed the creature which was born just a few years after Columbus sailed to America. I guess it's a good thing we still have history majors around to tell us what their history books said happened.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Deep Freeze
There are many ways to measure intelligence. The most obvious are things like standardized tests, such as the SATs, which can be vital in determining what college or university you get into. Personally I don't put much stock in that, mostly because how important can a thing like the SATs really be when people stop caring what you did the second you start college (sorry, high school juniors and seniors, but it is true). Too often I feel like society makes the mistake of hearing a person is well-educated and automatically assuming they are very smart. However, the more I travel through life the more I discover that one does not necessarily equal the other since all it takes to pass certain classes is to repeat the things the teacher just told you back to them. This is especially true when it comes to majors such a math and science where the answers are predetermined and you just need to know how input the variables in the correct order to find them. That shows a wonderful gift for retaining information, but I also worry that particular way of studying doesn't teach you how to think on your feet. I am much more impressed with people who understand that most problems you will face in your everyday life are unique to that situation and therefore don't have a ready-made solution, requiring a little improvisational thinking. I'm not saying anything crazy like the Ivy League is full of idiots (though, obviously there are exceptions to every rule) just that there is a difference between being educated and actually knowing how to use your brain.
Back in 2006 a group of scientists pulled a deep sea clam out of the ocean and discovered that it was a whopping 400 years old. It was a very impressive find and to preserve it the scientists did what they had always done with deep sea clams, which was put it in the freezer. Unfortunately, as it turns out this particular clam was like most senior citizens, in that it hated being cold and the clam died while in the freezer. So much for doing no harm. (Do marine biologist have to take a version of the Hippocratic Oath?) Making it even worse is they did some follow-up examinations and discovered the clam was even older than previously thought, having been born in 1499. Now, I am sure the scientists were just doing what they had been taught to do but this is exactly the kind of blind, follow-the-regulations thinking that I believe gets us into trouble. For example, I don't know anything about deep sea clams but I know that if you want to keep anything alive putting it in the freezer sounds like a really bad idea, so I probably would have double-checked with someone if that it what we should be doing. Even if that weren't the case, shouldn't these biologist know by now that not all animals react to cold the same way and been observing the clam to make sure it wasn't about to freeze to death? Maybe my way takes a little longer, but at least then we wouldn't have killed the creature which was born just a few years after Columbus sailed to America. I guess it's a good thing we still have history majors around to tell us what their history books said happened.
Back in 2006 a group of scientists pulled a deep sea clam out of the ocean and discovered that it was a whopping 400 years old. It was a very impressive find and to preserve it the scientists did what they had always done with deep sea clams, which was put it in the freezer. Unfortunately, as it turns out this particular clam was like most senior citizens, in that it hated being cold and the clam died while in the freezer. So much for doing no harm. (Do marine biologist have to take a version of the Hippocratic Oath?) Making it even worse is they did some follow-up examinations and discovered the clam was even older than previously thought, having been born in 1499. Now, I am sure the scientists were just doing what they had been taught to do but this is exactly the kind of blind, follow-the-regulations thinking that I believe gets us into trouble. For example, I don't know anything about deep sea clams but I know that if you want to keep anything alive putting it in the freezer sounds like a really bad idea, so I probably would have double-checked with someone if that it what we should be doing. Even if that weren't the case, shouldn't these biologist know by now that not all animals react to cold the same way and been observing the clam to make sure it wasn't about to freeze to death? Maybe my way takes a little longer, but at least then we wouldn't have killed the creature which was born just a few years after Columbus sailed to America. I guess it's a good thing we still have history majors around to tell us what their history books said happened.
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