Life Sciences in the 21st Century:
Agriculture & Life Sciences
Lecture 11: Outline

presented by Dr. Robert Lyons
Professor of Horticulture

Each of the following cases describes the experience of one or more agricultural biologists as as they pursue their jobs. As you peruse them, try to get a sense of...

Time
The success of each project did not happen overnight. Years of field, lab, and/or library work are frequently the prerequisites to significant results. What you don't usually see or hear about are the countless "dead-ends" that frustrate on-going progress, but each failure is actually one step closer to solving the problem. Furthermore, there is generally a legion of students, technicians and sometimes volunteers that has assisted in seeing the project to completion.
Cross-Discipline Cooperation
Major research does not operate in a vacuum. The insights, perspectives, and observations of individuals from different disciplines and industries often lead to better results. It is sometimes the most unlikely of professional relationships that generates the idea that works!
Basic vs. Applied Approaches
Successful project directors can no longer subscribe to the real or perceived tension between these categories of research. While it may take years to establish pragmatic avenues from basic research, answers to fundamental questions often lead to serendipitous opportunities for applied researchers. By the same token, without practical, applied research, there might never be further research into why phenomena occur the way we SEE them.
Teaching vs. Research
Another age-old conflict worthy of a disappearing act. Without effective teaching skills, getting "the message out" will be inefficient at best, and there would be few recipients of the benefits of research. Such communication skills are best employed both in and outside of the conventional classroom. This way "cutting edge" information is a part of undergraduate education as well as translated into meaningful jargon for the general public. Without research, especially within the less biased arena of the university, teaching would stagnate. The superior teacher/researcher may be in the minority, but those who excell in either need to establish lines of communication for the good of all.

Agricultural Biologists and Some of their Projects

Lee Daniels
Restoring Strip-Mined Land

How can people reclaim land devastated by strip mining? This soil scientist is using recycled waste products to help restore pastures and forests.

Loke Kok
Bugs that Eat Thistles

When pastures were becoming unusable because of colonization by thistles, this entomologist found some insects to eat the thistles (and just about nothing else!).

Dave Parrish and Dale Wolf
The Many Faces of Switchgrass

Once thought to be a useful, but poorly adapted forage, Switchgrass now has huge potential as a drought-resistant summer grass, an energy source, a soil conservation practice, wildlife habitat, and more. Learn how basic research led to its new uses.

Rick Fell
Carpenter Ants

How a simple study of an ant's overwintering behavior led to a commercial product to control these nefarious pests of people's homes.

Ron Morse
No-Till Vegetables

How a mudslide led a horticulture scientist to pioneer no-till vegetable production and the invention of a new piece of equipment that promotes sustainable agriculture.

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Life Sciences in the 21st Century: Agriculture & Life Sciences Lecture 11: Outline

Agricultural Biologists and Some of their Projects

Life Sciences in the 21st Century:
Agriculture & Life Sciences
Lecture 11: Outline