Ecology- Science Involving Natural Resources
Ecology, a branch of biology, deals with relationships of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. Examples of ecology studies include:
- Life processes, interactions and adaptations
- The movement of materials and energy through living communities
- The successful development of ecosystems
- Cooperation, competition and predation within and between species
- The abundance, biomass and distribution of organisms in the context of the environment
- Patterns of biodiversity and its effect on ecosystem processes
Ecology has practical applications in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agroecology, agriculture, forestry, fisheries), urban planning (urban ecology) community health, economics, basic and applied science and human social interaction (human ecology).
FAMILY BACKGROUND
JL’s parents were small store owners with off-duty interests. JL attributed his ‘determined independence’ to his mother, an amateur actress, secretary, and entrepreneur whom he regarded as an early feminist. JL’s interest in the natural world came from his father, an outdoorsman who took his son on long walks in the countryside and taught him the common names of plants, animals, and insects.
CHILDHOOD
Attending an urban public school, JL was an ‘underachieving’ student but an ardent reader of Jules Verne’s science fiction (e.g. “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”) and of science and history texts that he borrowed from the local library.
EDUCATION
JL graduated from a nationally respected university.
FIRST ADULT, FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT
Following college graduation, JL was hired as a ‘Junior Scientist’ at a government medical research agency, where he specialized in hygiene and transmission of infectious agents.
CAREER PATH ALWAYS INVOLVES SCIENCE BUT WONDERMENTS LEAD DOWN DIFFERENT SCIENTIFIC PATHS
JL became an expert on the chemical composition of the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, so he was one of the scientists recruited by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), assigned to their Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where he began to wonder why Earth’s atmosphere was so stable. JL theorized that something must be regulating heat, oxygen, nitrogen, and other components. “Life at the surface must be doing the regulation” he wrote. He presented his theory at a meeting of the American Astronautical Society and later at a scientific gathering at Princeton University.
JL became internationally recognized for his contributions to science, chiefly for the following:
- Invention of the Electron Capture Detector, an inexpensive, portable, very sensitive device used to help measure the spread of toxic, man-made compounds in the environment. This device provided the scientific foundations of Rachel Carson’s famous 1962 book, “Silent Spring” a catalyst of the environmental movement.
- Finding that chlorofluorocarbons (‘CFCs’) – the compounds that powered aerosol cans and were used to cool refrigerators and air-conditioners – were present in measurable concentrations in the atmosphere, led to the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer.
- ‘Gaia’ theory – that Earth functioned as a ‘living organism’, able to regulate its temperature and chemistry at a comfortable, steady state.
CHALLENGE – PRESENTING A FAULTY SCIENTIFIC CONCLUSION
Although JL identified the presence of CFCs in the atmosphere, he also reasoned that at concentrations in the parts per billion, they posed ‘no conceivable hazard’ to the planet. Subsequent scientific findings by others contradicted such a conclusion. JL later called his early statement: “A gratuitous blunder.”
Editor’s note – Lesson learned: Follow the ‘scientific method’ to test your theories; don’t present predictions not fully tested according to scientific methods. But don’t be afraid to be wrong and have to admit your error. Mistakes – which are recognized and admitted – add to our knowledge of how to improve our procedures.
CAREER SATISFACTION
JL could not measure his career satisfaction in terms of money earned for his scientific findings or invention, though of course he was paid market-value for his services as a scientist. His ‘Electron Capture Detector’ was redesigned and commercialized by Hewlett-Packard without any royalty or licensing agreement involving JL.
JL’s legacy, formed by his analytical mind and independence, has been hailed by other scientists for “playing a significant role in literally saving the Earth by helping to figure out that the ozone layer was disappearing. His Gaia theory helped us understand that small changes could shift a system as large as the Earth’s atmosphere.”
