A Generalist in a World of Specialists
Thu., March 20, 04:06 PM
I’ve often described myself as a generalist in a world of specialists, but recently I have been reminded of the most adept generalist I ever met. (Maybe it was Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” that reminded me.)
Dr. Wendell H. Camp was the chairman of the Department of Botany when I attended the University of Connecticut. But as he would say, he had come into botany “through the back door.” He had originally chosen geology as his main field of study, but he was sidetracked by the fossils that he found. So he did a course of zoology, which led him to the study of genetics. For certain studies of genetics, botany is a better choice because you can divide a plant into two pieces, producing two separate viable entities with identical genetic properties. (We had not yet begun to use the term DNA, but that’s what he meant.)
I took introduction to botany with Dr. Camp, and he was so interesting that I elected to take his advanced course, “Plants and Man.” His wide knowledge of history, sociology, economics, and languages added to what he could teach us about plants, and he was widely traveled as well. He had spent some time with the Jivaro Indians of Peru, often called the headhunters.
As co-author of The World in Your Garden, he often used its illustrations to demonstrate the history of plants. Sometimes the similarities between terms in different languages would give him a clue to its genealogy. He would point to geologic formations as another clue. He pronounced native words as they were spoken to him; corn, or maize, is properly pronounced “mah-EEZ.”
Maybe I especially liked Dr. Camp because he validated some theories I had developed on my own. Have you ever compared a peach pit to an almond? I was thrilled when Dr. Camp said that the two plants were related, one cultivated for the fruit and one cultivated for the seed. (Everyone else thought I was nuts…er, crazy.)
Dr. Camp occasionally consulted for farmers and developers of specialty crops. You may be aware that certain pineapple plants are selected because their fruit fits best into a can. But did you know that blueberries should not be too big? The theory is that you crush a blueberry in your mouth to release the taste; it should be small enough for a child to crush it, so that the child learns to like it while he’s young.
Now, is that botany or is it economics? Either way, it was a great way to learn.
With all that in mind, I happened across another eighth grade science test. As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t even remember who my eighth grade science teacher was, let alone whether he or she taught me anything. However, I seem to have learned it somewhere.
