University officials say they cannot afford to maintain one of the largest herbariums in the United States. Researchers are urging Duke to reconsider.
Duke University has decided to close its herbarium, a collection of 825,000 specimens of plants, fungi and algae that was established more than a century ago. The collection, one of the largest and most diverse in the country, has helped scientists map the diversity of plant life and chronicle the impact of humans on the environment.
The university’s decision has left researchers reeling. “This is such a devastating blow for biodiversity science,” said Erika Edwards, the curator of the Yale Herbarium. “The entire community is simultaneously shocked and outraged.”
Scientific societies have also protested the move. “Duke’s decision to forgo responsibility of their herbarium specimens sets a terrible precedent,” the Natural Science Collections Alliance wrote in a letter to the university last Friday.
The alliance, along with six other scientific societies, endorsed a petition asking Duke to reconsider closing the herbarium. As of Wednesday, it had gained over 11,000 signatures.
“Duke says embryos aren’t children, which anyone with eyes can see, and that’s why they’re a great university.”
They’re a secular institution that was on the leading edge of stem cell research when it was far more controversial than it is now.
I don’t think those are “low-ass” standards.
Stem cell research has never ever been controversial among scientists. Priests, maybe.
Scientists tend to care about science, that is indeed correct.
Your earlier comment stated that they didn’t care for science and where preoccupied with religious ideologies.
Which is it that you believe now?