A Summer of Research: Intro

Imagine if your summer days were spent snorkeling in the warm waters of Bermuda, researching the corals that you collected from the reefs during your morning swims.  Or what if instead you walked into work every morning and were greeted by howling apes, roaring lions, cackling hyenas, squeaking monkeys and chirping birds from across the globe?  Or perhaps you’d prefer to set snares for cougars, spending your summer traveling the mountainous deserts and forests of New Mexico in search of the elusive big cats?  Every summer Furman University biology students become involved in research projects and internships throughout the country and abroad.  Students’ experiences have been as varied as working with sea turtles in Myrtle Beach, learning about sustainable agriculture in Guatemala, studying plants gathered in Puerto Rico, doing research on corals in Bermuda, studying pumas in New Mexico, and working with gorillas and small mammals in Columbia, South Carolina.  However, in addition to these types of experiences away from campus, there are many research opportunities at Furman every summer.  Students join professors in their specific academic pursuits by becoming involved either through lab work or through field work.  Students this past summer were able to perform such wide ranging tasks as measuring dragonfly populations around the Furman Lake, isolating genes from bullfrog brain tissue, studying diseases using yeast, measuring the water quality and fish biodiversity of streams near Furman’s campus, conducting immunological research on T-cells by experimenting with the activation process of the cells, refining techniques to measure the velocity of blood cells within a vessel, and implementing kudzu management strategies.  The number and variety of projects and internships with which Furman biology majors are involved are testaments to the ingenuity, creativity, and collaborative efforts of both the students and the teachers.

One area of research which I was a member of was the research projects being overseen by Dr. John Quinn, three of which were only begun this past summer.  Dr. Quinn came to Furman from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 2012, bringing a long list of research topics for which he only needs interested students.  This summer there were four research projects being carried out by Furman students working with Dr. Quinn.  Two of the projects focused on the Brown-headed Nuthatch and other bird species of Upstate SC, one of the projects involved looking at videos taken in Nebraska of the Bell’s Vireo, a small songbird of the southeast and central US, while the fourth project consisted of collecting samples of insects from urban gardens along the Swamp Rabbit Trail from Traveler’s Rest to Greenville, SC.    

Of course, the question behind all of these research projects is “Why?”  Why is the research that these students are doing of any real importance beyond making a good grade?  Why should anyone other than the students and their academic peers care about this research?  The question is a reasonable one, and similar “why” questions are often posed to researchers in all branches of science.  The simple answer would be that the acquisition of knowledge for knowledge sake is enough to justify research such as the projects described above.  Knowing more about the world we live in and share with the plants and animals about us is always beneficial, especially when we have the ability to affect massive change in our habitat as we do.  But that’s an easy answer.  

A more specific explanation of the importance of the research I have mentioned here has to do with the fact that everything in the natural world is interdependent. Increasing our knowledge of even one species can lead us to a greater understanding of our interaction with the world around us, which can allow for our leaders and the public at large to make informed decisions that can improve the quality of life on this planet.  Knowing how the insect populations in Greenville may affect the birds that predate them, how those birds utilize their habitat, and how that land is used by the people who own and manage it allows us to catch a glimpse of how we might use that land for the benefit of all:  ourselves, the birds, and even the insects. Perhaps each new fragment of knowledge will only lead to one small change, and perhaps only a few people will care about the findings of researchers, but that is enough.  If every new discovery will inspire just one person to leave a positive impact upon this world, then we should never stop searching for that inspiration.