Yesterday I was delighted to open my mailbox and see protists on the
front of a major US magazine. The cover of this month's Scientific
American has a beautiful photograph of Japanese Star Sand, mostly the
foraminiferan (Baculogypsina sphaerulata). Finally, protists had hit the
primetime!
Imagine then my dismay when I read the article inside and they
referred to foraminiferans as "...microscopic, single-celled
animals.." Animals?? ANIMALS!!! If the editors of one of the most
influential magazines for educating the public about the nature of
science was calling forams "animals", I realized that we have our
work cut out for us. I mean really, thanks to Mark Siddall we've
already lost one phylum of protists this year. Are we destined to
relinquish the foraminiferans too!!
Does someone more eloquent than I want to draft a letter to the
Editor of Scientific American, or must I take on this windmill
myself? :-)
MTC,
Mark
Mark A. Farmer
Director, Ctr. Ultrastructural Research
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
(706)542-4080 Voice (706)542-4271 FAX
farmer at emlab.cb.uga.edu
(This message is made of 100% recycled electrons)
