Who would you like to see us write about? Can you give us some names?

This has been a very popular series but perhaps we can do some more.

If you are not sure, can you ask your teacher to leave a comment with some suggestions?

Craig Rosa
KQED QUEST Staff

Thank you for your inquiry, below is an answer to your questions and more detail about this blog.

First off, I don’t consider myself an expert, nor have I ever claimed to be an expert in any scientific field. I am a writer and I have been trained in research and intermediary writing. I am also a devoted fan of science and have been all my life. This is particularly true of biological science and adaptation, something in which I have pursued, researched and been involved in for quite some time. I have the privilege to not only work with a great wealth of scientists but also the opportunity to share their research and experiences through writing for KQED. I write about experience related to me, books, scientists, and news that intrigues or inspires, hoping that it in turn will inspire others. That is why my blogs vary so much from week to week.

I wrote this particular blog over a year ago for QUEST. I was thinking about Martin Luther King and how so many people know about his life. Yet so little is known about innovative African American scientists and innovators. So like you, I did research and wrote this blog. There was so much interest in the first blog, I was asked to write another one by my editor at QUEST. Since then, these two blogs have received the most comments, often from students like you who are doing research which I think it great.

I also stand by my statement that diversity is the cornerstone of science. It is diversity of data, of observation, of perspectives, and species that lay the needed foundation for great discoveries. I attended a lecture on Monday of one of our curators. He stated in his talk that only 1/10 of life has been discovered on the planet. This is like a flashlight in a dark room, you don’t know what the big picture is if you can only see a portion of it. The more scientists understand about diversity of life, the better we understand our planet and how to align with it. Most of the work done at the Academy – is done by a variety of international teams out in the field. So diversity of race is quite familiar to me working here, it is unfortunate though that this is not common knowledge to the public. Please use what you like of this blog and others like it for your paper and leave what is not useful. And from my end, thank you for considering it a viable research tool!

Best,
Cat