Science without Shiny Labs

Research Article| January 01 2019 Science without Shiny Labs Douglas Allchin Douglas Allchin Departmental Editor 1DOUGLAS ALLCHIN is a historian and philosopher of science and science educator. He is author of Teaching the Nature of Science: Perspectives and Resources (2013) and Sacred Bovines: The Ironies of Misplaced Assumptions in Biology (2017), based on essays from this column. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (2019) 81 (1): 61–64. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.1.61 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures Science without Shiny Labs. The American Biology Teacher 1 January 2019; 81 (1): 61–64. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.1.61 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search The tangle of vegetation may look like an abandoned field. Or an overgrown vacant lot (Figure 1). But it is a farm. And a shining example of indigenous scientific knowledge. Indeed, this image can help us reassess the widespread expectation (this month's Sacred Bovine) that science – or the best modern science – owes its effectiveness to lab experiments and the latest shiny technology. First, we might appreciate how this field can reflect good science, then ask more about science itself in an indigenous context. That might inform us more deeply about how science works. The farm here is a milpa. It embodies methods developed millennia ago in Mesoamerica. This agricultural strategy helped build and sustain the cities of the Maya and other early civilizations. While the field may appear chaotic, it is mindfully organized. The key feature is intercropping. Three crops are grown simultaneously on... You do not currently have access to this content.