Who needs entomology today?

My opinion: K. Makarov does a lot of work on publishing books, and as far as I know from his colleagues in Kaluga, he is the most "strong" arachnologist in systematic terms. But the attitude to fundamental science, really, will take away the desire from anyone...
You don't need to watch this publication, dear colleagues... We need to look at those "entomologists" who seriously undermine our fundamental activity and, accordingly, our credibility... Some dissertations are based on SUCH absurd data, for example: 326 macro types for the Tula region... Are you feeling weak? When published 1200, and now even more... So, it is not K. Makarov who should be criticized, but such would-be scientists who, by the way, knock out quite noble grants for such cases, and for real enthusiasts it is difficult to find pins and boxes... If it wasn't for Morpho, I would have given up everything...

Probably not K. Makarov, but K. Mikhailov, after all...
As for the faunal topics of PhD theses, I absolutely agree with you, this is the easiest way to defend. Of course, it is impossible to get through with such people in St. Petersburg, Moscow or Novosibirsk, but in... (we will not name these cities!) it looks like that's the only way they defend themselves. They put a couple of dozen cans, fished for one season, and then you see the dynamics of the number and species composition, and you look, according to an article in the interuniversity collection, the dissertation is already rolled up!
However, now the Higher Attestation Commission has already begun to fight this, but how!
See the excellent article about the new HAC policy
http://polit.ru/science/2006/12/12/vaklist.html?refresh=1
at the end the lists are 11

Colleagues, we are moving away from the topic! Dear guest N, if it's not a secret, are you
related to entomology? If so, what do you do? Now to the point.

I read what they write here and thought about it... Here's what I realized: entomology as many people see it - a HOBBY, COLLECTING INSECTS. At the head of it are taxonomists, that is, the same INSECT COLLECTORS who do not like rubella.

Taxonomists - "collectors" are not at the head, but rather at the base of entomology. Any research, whether we like it or not, begins with the work of taxonomists and faunalists, and then there are other directions. Before you fight any voracious infection, you need to find out exactly who it is. Because biological methods of control (which, I hope, will become dominant) are quite "species-specific". How much in the Far East of Russia this year did the bad guy mess up? How much will it be next year, even if there are "millions of piles" of masonry on buildings in cities? And the government stirred when the butterflies "spawned". And asked how to get rid of BUTTERFLIES (i.e. imago)!!! when the caterpillars have already devoured everything. And where are the capitalists who want to preserve the forest, if only for profit (i.e., export)? It is pointless to argue what is more important, bricks or mortar, when we are building a house. And the state does not really want to give money for this construction.
P. S.: You can't live on exhibition and museum money, you need serious funding.

Gentlemen, do not forget that we live in the era of capitalism and any initiative must bring money. The official will not understand what the COLLECTION of insects is and WHY or FOR WHOM it is used. After all, he collects collections himself, for example, weapons, mansions, cars, yachts, etc., and understands unequivocally: the COLLECTION is for HIMSELF. And if it's for yourself, then you have to pay for it yourself. After all, put your collections on display at exhibitions and earn income from it. Moreover, the collections have been collected for more than one century, whether it's not a lot, it's time to bring money. Will entomologists do all this? Hardly! Another thing is applied areas that can bring real money. And we're back to where we started.

You write as if collecting has nothing to do with everything else, and vice versa. But where can we go without the material? This is like saying: why sequence the genome if only one gene is needed for transformation in order to obtain the desired product? (an interesting analogy was drawn-genomics =(?) collecting). Without the material, there is nowhere. So the official should present it, and not as a collection. (hobby )

Yes, the question turned out to be relevant. As an entomologist and student of bil fak, this question also did not pass me by. What is interesting is that there are two points of view that both have the right to exist in their own way. However, I am more inclined to the point of view of taxonomists. Although I believe that the division in entomology should be only in the nature of the distribution of roles, everyone chooses what is closer to their heart, and not that one branch is more important than another, everything is interconnected here. It would be interesting to look at applied entomology without taxonomists when they would not know what to put where and when there would be no one to collect the material. The state does not need entomology, neither applied nor any other. They have different priorities and concerns today, here I fully agree with sealor 'om and sergeich' om, (I made pins myself by hand and all the equipment too, including boxes, etc., etc.). When I entered the university, I was full of hope, although even before that I was faced with indifference to entomology. But here I thought it would be different (I chose my profession based on the principle of interest, and not as everyone is now working for lawyers, accountants, managers, everyone is looking at what is more prestigious where they pay more for software) However, only now I fully faced the whole reality: there are no interested people who entered the bilfac, we went according to the principle of what is left, but only education + more budget places, the Gos museum is more likely to live out its last days, although as soon as foreigners - so immediately look at what kind of museum we have and neither you have funding nor you have a human attitude to the state does not provide jobs to the museum curator, and what it does give them is to live long live on such a fee, and it is not realistic to break through to the tip of the iceberg in entomology, but here you can only survive and earn money. Therefore, in choosing a profession, as it is not sad to have to be guided by more mundane values these days. And entomology today can only be practiced as a hobby, at least not on the territory of the former Soviet Union.
P.S. However, such a profession is needed today, and not only for entomologists, but that's why we don't understand this today. And that's what makes me desperate, because I want to do what I love, but I don't have any support.

Trofim, regarding the state's attitude to entomology - you can write and talk a lot here, but all the same, the effectiveness of these conversations tends to zero.
But still, at this level, which is now the attitude to biology - it's creepy.
So I entered our local university, which opened a biofactory, and that-well, okay, there is no material base, everything is still damp, and that, it would seem, we need to develop everything, interest students, teachers too, but no, teachers are overloaded, a lot of students have entered, but also on the principle of " so that there was a piece of paper", I heard this there, they say I wanted to go to inyaz, but a place turned up here(at the biofac) and here I am, oh, how hard it is here, or "why do you need to teach mushrooms for two semesters, you told me everything yesterday at the lecture" , etc. about the development of no, just needed a faculty as the university was given the status of "university" and used to be ped. institute. Well, this is our country, like in the provinces, but according to what I was told - in the center is no better.
So I left there, the point is to sit there and listen to the howling of mobile phones in the audience and watch how girls 17 years old smoke and swear...
Practice, too, at first it seems that the Crimea was planned, then the Kimburnskaya spit, and then at the end it seems like to some nearby village and then it is not known whether we went or not..
And those lawyers, they are just a dime a dozen, and it's no secret that there is an overabundance of representatives of such professions, but nevertheless they are needed, because in osnom they are hired or they organize a firm using their knowledge of how best to evade taxes, liability, etc
. biology is prestigious in the field of medicine, cosmetics, molecular biology in general, and zoologists are also "poor" there, it's just that we and they have different levels of poverty.

Well, taxonomy - no one says that it is not needed!!!! I just concluded from my observations that it is now more and more "paper-based", just a shuffle of existing material, which is also interesting, painstaking and troublesome, probably, but is research done using new-molecular, genetic data, and are there expeditions to collect species, and then research the material with new ones? methods?
At least in the same "West"?
And we have my collection over there, where there are not even half a thousand individuals to store anywhere in the university, there is nothing and nothing to do, what kind of work is there???

- I haven't read it, - but I'll answer: -I need it!!!, - because "if not ME, then who!?"

Since the Soviet era, Russia's attitude to science has changed. If in the 60 years of the 20th century there were real SCIENTISTS who were able to send a man into space, today they are scientists who think only about one thing: where to get the next state order for free and with minimal rollback. I've seen enough of them. They are no longer capable of anything but getting freebies. Only they can yell about nanotechnology (this is sobsna and there is a national freebie order, where you don't need to do anything ). Have you bought a lot of nanotechnology results in stores? toto and it. So entomology requires large investments: expeditions, salaries for scientists, etc. Like any science, entomology can be applied, but the effect of this applied science is not as PR-oriented as the effect of nanotechnology. Therefore, such statements of narrow-minded students are heard. And basic science has never been profitable. Therefore, modern students do not want to engage in it.

Everything has changed not only in Russia, but throughout the former Soviet Union. And the further into the forest, the thicker the partisans. We have almost no middle generation left in most of our institutions, mostly retired people and "especially gifted young people" who went to graduate school due to fraud. Directors on such a young hope of science make good money, putting employees who think something out, write their dissertations, and then skimming the cream for the crust, etc. In my former institute, the director tried to somehow attach a couple of graduate students to me, they say they graduated from the university with a red diploma, ready-made entomologists, we will give one topic on one topic colorado potato beetle, the second largest bug-turtle. The main question of the first one is "Why are Colorado potato beetles different - some are yellow and soft, and others are striped and hard" lol: I quickly clarified the situation with his red diploma (I remember an anecdote on the topic-a ram at my institute). When I asked him why he needed a candidate's diploma, the answer came: "I'll go back to the village and show it to everyone." The second, when he was sent to the library to make extracts from literature, according to the librarian, spent a whole hour over the selection of RJ "Entomology", in the end he said that he did not find anything there on turtles . I ended up politely turning down graduate students and quitting. After I was fired, sihh entomologist Beavis and Butt-Head were assigned to another employee. A year after that, she also quit. According to colleagues from other institutes, this is not an isolated situation.

after visiting Moscow, I got a slightly different impression than before, about who needs it after all6:
On the one hand, there are few specialists, even fewer good specialists, and so on
.On the other hand, there are many people who are interested in entomology as a science, its study, and knowledge of the world. There are people who are very high-quality and responsible in their work and make big breakthroughs.
In my opinion, it is better to be such people who have grown up on their own enthusiasm to the heights of leading specialists, than incomprehensible people, even well-trained in universities, but without much zeal, without an inner feeling that pulls you to comprehend something, to comprehend through the world of small creatures that, with smaller sizes, have very interesting qualities, very interesting and unusual perception, adaptation.

RiuppeR, I agree. However, most of those who went from universities to science in recent years, to call well-trained, like calling Bush a fighter for world peace-. And their own enthusiasm should still be fueled by the state to some extent, and preferably to a greater extent than to a lesser extent. When scientists in institutes do not receive a salary for six months, which is already scanty, there will be no fundamental science in general and entomology in particular, but only a convulsive struggle for survival. And then PR about nano - and biotechnologies, theft of works, writing left-wing dissertations and articles, and other "charms of scientific life"are already being used.