Interesting magazine article of the day.

[patryuji]

Originally printed in Popular Mechanics July 2004 edition.

"Calling All Catfish"
A team of 230 scientists from around the world will attempt to capture one of each type of catfish. Thus far, 2700 species of the whiskered fish have been identified. Another 1750 species are believed to exist. The 5-year, $4.7million project will be directed by the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History, located in Gainesville.
[insert]Easy To Find: Catfish account for 1 in 4 freshwater species

Thought it was an interesting little short that maybe others would find interesting.

 

[Menagerie]

8O
Oh, those wacky scientists! Who funds this stuff?

 

[krap101]

our taxes probally

 

[oscarbreeder]

I would have to agree with Krap101.

 

[TankGirl]

They get grants for things like this. You would be amazed at the grant applications that are approved!

 

[Menagerie]

I know they get grants...I need a grant. Where is the money for cerebellar research??? Why are scientits catching catfish?? How does that better humankind?
*whew* I feel better now

 

[RogerMcAllen]

This is an amazing proposition, it will help to create an accurate database of catfish information, the cat e-log at pc is good but not perfect, which will be incredible.

 

[Guest]

Where is the money for cerebellar research???
Why are scientits catching catfish?? How does that better humankind?

The more we know, the more ways we can find things that DO benefit humankind. Maybe there's a catfish somewhere in the world that has special genetic properties that will help cure a human disease? Or one that has special immune system properties? The possibilities are endless.

The more we learn about other creatures, the more we may gain knowledge of ourselves...

 

[William]

our taxes probally

I wasn't aware you were old enough to pay taxes..





I need to get ME a government grant. I'm sure I could make up some wooky project that would get accepted..

 

[TankGirl]

I agree that sometimes it seems unfair for money to be granted for seemingly unnecessary, non-vital, expensive and long-term experiments and studies, when people are dying from all kinds of conditions that we don't know enough about.

You would think there would be more individuals with personal reasons to support and push for human studies than for zoological ones, but maybe there are, and we are only reading about these fishy studies because it makes for interesting reading.