Polverone........full article.
Letter
Amateur Science
By Forrest M. Mims III
Thank you for Bruce V. Bigelow's article on amateur science (The Scientist, June 10, 1996, page 1). Prior to this century, most science was
conducted by people with little or no formal scientific training. Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, and Michael Faraday come to
mind.
Even today, a Ph.D. is not a prerequisite for making discoveries and publishing one's findings in peer-reviewed literature. A classic example is
Donald Parker, a Florida anesthesiologist who spends his evenings making extraordinary photographs of planets with a homemade telescope. Parker has
discovered storms on Saturn.
I would like to clarify two matters. While it is correct that a government scientist ordered me not to visit Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) in 1995, he
changed his mind after I explained what I do and reminded him that MLO is on a public road, albeit a very remote one. The visits to MLO, which I have
made annually since 1992, are to calibrate various instruments that I have designed for the Sun Photometer Atmospheric Network (SPAN) and for use by
students.
I have just returned from this year's visit to MLO, where for the fourth year I took the class I teach at the University of the Nations in
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a tour of MLO. These students come from all over the world, and they are always appreciative of MLO director Russ
Schnell's highly informative lectures about the vital atmospheric monitoring programs at MLO.
Finally, I lost "The Amateur Scientist" column at Scientific American solely because my response to questions about Darwinism, abortion, and
the Bible were considered potentially "embarrassing." The editor never questioned the quality of my science, and he was generous in his
evaluation of the three columns he published (F.M. Mims III, Scientific American, 262:130-3, June 1990; 263:106-9, August 1990; 263:126-9, October
1990).
The editor's positive evaluation of my columns and his concerns about my personal religious beliefs were published in Harper's
("Science's Litmus Test," 282:28-32, March 1991) and here.
Aside from this unfortunate episode, the only obstacles I have faced in pursuing science are the same ones professionals deal with every day: revising
papers to satisfy peer reviewers and lack of time and money. I have excellent relations with many university and government scientists, some of whom
have coauthored papers with me.
In 1995, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent me to Brazil to make atmospheric and solar measurements during the burning season, and
the Environmental Protection Agency placed one of its Brewer spectrophotometers at my site for a 62-day comparison with my instruments. And one of my
ozone instruments was used during the historic circumnavigation of North America by a Canadian ice cutter in 1994. These and many other opportunities
were unsolicited.
As for Scientific American, the magazine has a new editor, and I am happy to report that he published my letter (after peer review) on the possible
impact on amphibians of the redistribution of solar ultraviolet radiation by haze (F.M. Mims III, "Vanishing Frogs," Scientific American,
273:10, September 1995). Eventually I hope to again contribute articles to its pages.
Forrest M. Mims III
433 Twin Oak Rd.
Seguin, Texas 78155
E-mail: fmims@aol.com
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