Question for Marine biologists or Oceanographers

[kenz0]

Does it take real brainers to study Marine biology? Are they like required to memorize thousands of scientific names? Was thinking of considering this as a long term goal.

Hope im posting on the right section too

 

[M_Bipartitus]

From my experience in physics and chemistry, such memorization is not the most important skill. It's often emphasized in classes that you need to know many terms and names, but when you are actually in the field researching, these are not the most important skills. More important that a bunch or memorization are the analytical and problem solving skills you need to develop to be an accomplished scientist. I would imagine anyone who has basic computer skills could figure out a scientific name for some given fish by searching long enough online, but to publish a scientific paper you must recognize an important project. You must know the field methods required to get useful information about that project. You must know how to analyze the information you get And often most important is that you must be able to interpret your findings using the vast existing scientific understanding. It's often this last part that requires the most time and thought.

I would list the most important qualifications for science to be

1. Ability to quickly learn anything - in a typical project you would need to quickly understand existing work on the same or similar topics and understand each of these related sub-fields.

2. Problem solving and analytical skils - Most scientists I know spend most days solving problems of various types. This could be problems with gear and instruments while trying to get data, it could be trying to solve the problem of what your data is telling you about your topic of study, or it could even be trying to decide exactly what needs to be studied.

3. Memory - there is a lot to remember. However, remembering where to find the information you need is often enough for a lot of background information.

4. Field method skills - many fields of science have specific methods that are used to study any specific type of problem. These are often easy to pick up if you have the above skills.

I may be biased towards problem solving skills, but I see too many physics and chemistry students who want to memorize questions and answers, but who don't try to understand why those answers apply. Consider the above just one opinion.

 

[drbill]

I prefer to use a fish's common name (Mary, Bob, Sue or Bubba) when communicating with most people, although I'll give the scientific name as well. Scientific names are important in professional communications. However, I've learned over the five decades I've been a marine biologist that names change to suit human knowledge.

M Bipartitus has listed some good skills to develop. Memorization is something you do in high schools that don't cater to refining intelligence, just catering to the standard tests. You need to go well beyond that.

Problem solving skills are indeed critical. Knowledge of and competence in the various methods used by scientists is likewise very important. I know I focused only on a certain (and rather unusual at the time) set of skills related to interpreting remotely sensed satellite images and manipulating data within a geographic information system (GIS). I wish I was more conversant with a number of other methods... but as a good "learner," I can do that when they become necessary.