Moving toward a sustainable ecological science: don't let data go to waste!

Abstract

Claude Bernard (Bernard 1864)wrote that “art is me; science is us”. his sentence has two meanings. First, the altruism of scientists is worth more to Bernard than the self-indulgence of mid-nineteenth century Parisian art scene. Second, and we will keep this one in mind, creativity and insights come from individuals, but validation and rigour are reached through collective eoorts, cross-validation, and peerage. Given enough time, the conclusions reached and validated by the eoorts of many will take prominence over individualities, and this (as far as Bernard is concerned), is what science is about. With the technology available to a modern scientist, one should expect that the dissolution of me would be accelerated, and that several scientists should be able to cast a critical eye on data, and use this collective eoort to draw robust conclusions.