Last updated: February 26, 2022
Article
Correcting Course
Our winter 2021 issue has stories about rescuing a beloved church, making and renewing ties, and being surprised.
Image credit: NPS
People like certainty. When I go to the grocery store, I like to know that the grocery bag won’t break and spill my purchases onto the asphalt in the parking lot. But life is uncertain. The bag could break. The practice of science is subject to the same winds of uncertainty that affect all of us in our lives, because people practice science, and scientists study real events.
Every day we are presented with changes and are challenged to adapt. Science is no different. We like to think of science as fixed and certain, but like life, science can be a messy business. Part of that is on purpose. Scientists seek out change to help them understand it; in other words, they experiment. That’s how scientific knowledge progresses. If science didn’t do this, the people of Karluk, Alaska, couldn’t use ground-penetrating radar to help in rescuing their church, as Shina duVall describes in our cover story.
Practicing science is like navigating the ocean. The waves are like the different factors that come into play, all the different things that might happen. The boat has to make corrections to stay on course. These past two years, we have seen science make course corrections time and time again when dealing with a global pandemic.
For some of us, this can be hard to take. After a number of these messages, we might start ignoring what the science is telling us. But scientists can’t afford to do that, nor do they want to.
Our national parks are being affected by drastic changes tied to a rapidly warming planet. The article on marching mangroves by Ches Vervaeke and colleagues shows us that our coastlines are changing in ways that make it hard to know what they're going to look like in 20 years. We need many perspectives to find creative solutions to address these problems. Catherine Schmitt’s story about including voices that have systematically been ignored in science is an example of the kind of course correction we need right now to deal with a changing climate and other challenges.
Collaboration is critical for practicing science, and it is a theme that underlies all the articles in this issue. Wheeler and his coauthors tell us how national park historical preservation staff and biologists got together to protect a vulnerable species while restoring a part of our history. When we collaborate, we can solve really complex problems.
I hope you find inspiration and encouragement in this issue. I hope it shows that practicing science is uniquely human and that sometimes we learn the best lessons through our mistakes. I also hope these stories show that we are listening to what you have to say and addressing the things that matter most to you. Be well and stay safe.
About the author
Marie Lawrence is the editor of Park Science magazine. Image credit: NPS.