Science Under Siege: zoology under threat.

Abstract

THE authors and editors of this book are scientists — disgruntled ones. They are dismayed at attacks on their science and science in general; attacks that come from outside scientific circles and from outside evidence and reason. The critics are widespread and include: those attending rallies where books are burnt, shock jocks who vilify the science of climate change, politicians who ignore the conclusions and recommendations of good science to see their name against another headline, and anonymous others who make death threats against climate researchers. The scientists involved in the production of this book are drawn predominately from zoological backgrounds — writing and communicating are not skills new to them. The book presents the ideas expressed in talks and posters put forward at a forum in 2008. These talks were subsequently written up, polished and peerreviewed before being published in November 2012. The book offers the thoughts and experiences of the authors relating to the book’s title Science under siege: zoology under threat. The forward tells us that the title was coined by Dr Paul Willis, Director of the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus), yet he maintains he merely gave a name to a thought that evolved through the ruminations of others preparing the forum. The aim of the book is to mount a defence against the attackers, to communicate the real science and expose the shallowness of the attackers’ reasoning.