Yesterday was a good day as far as books went; I read G.G. Simpson's Splendid Isolation from cover-to-cover, two review copies arrived in the mail, and a book I've long been wanting to read also arrived at my door. That book is Johannes Weigelt's Recent Vertebrate Carcasses and their Paleobiological Implications, first published in 1927 but translated by Judith Schaefer and re-released in 1989. I haven't gotten a chance to dive into it yet, but it is an absolutely beautiful book, and even though the subject matter may be a bit macabe it has already inspired me.
Lately I've been thinking of how I can "break into" science by doing some research or publishing a paper, but so far the topic of what I should focus on has eluded me. Looking at the decaying carcasses and contorted skeletons at the back of Weigelt's book, I was reminded of a study that came out last year about taphonomy that I didn't quite agree with, although I'm probably going to need to place myself on an ostrich farm (or other location where I can observe what happens to large, dead birds) this summer to see if my hunch is correct. (Sorry to be so cryptic, but I'm actually half-serious about trying to carry out the study I have in mind and don't want to give it away just yet. Someone who actually has time, money, and resources could complete the study and publish before I got out of the gate, so I'm going to keep it under my hat for now).
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You're going to love Recent Vert Carcasses. Enjoy!
I've got some salt pan bent-neck pelican carcass photos you can use for your paper!
Hi Brian,
I hope you enjoy Weigelt's book. I loved it--real nuts and bolts descriptive work with tons of interesting stuff on dead critters. With pictures! Although the circumstances of its creation always make me smile: here we are not long after WWI, and this skinny German dude is wandering around Texas taking pictures of dead animals. It's a wonder he didn't get taphonomized by a suspicious redneck.
About your quest to do publishable research: go for it. There's a great Sherlock Holmes quote that is relevant here: "all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link". That's how I feel about research. You pick up one thread and follow it for a little while, and find it connected to two more, and those to more yet...very, very rapidly you go from "What on Earth am I going to work on?" to "Which one of these thousand juicy targets am I going to go after next?" It's a slippery slope of the best kind. Take the plunge.
BTW, I tagged you with the Writing Meme, because I have no idea how you write so much so well so often. Unless "Brian Switek" is really an acronym for an invisible creative team. :-) In which case, keep up the good work, you guys.