The Monkey's Medicine Chest: 1993
This
is the toughest thousand word article I've ever written -- The Monkey's
Medicine Chest. For science writers this article would be just a straightforward little news piece, but for me at
the time it was a very big deal. MIT's Technology Review is a huge fish
to catch for a beginning writer (as I was back in 1993). But what made
it even better was that they called me and asked me to write the
article after reading a similar piece I had written for Animals
Magazine (which I'll also post here as well). That was my first lesson
in the power of publishing and generating a conversation about an issue.
The topic of how endangered wild animals seek out and use rare medicinal plants to heal themselves (zoopharmacognosy) fascinated me (and still does), since it was an emerging field in science at the time and could have dramatic implications for human health and our global environment. Imagine wild animals teaching domesticated humans how to cure some of our nastiest diseases. My conclusion? Follow the animals. We'd be much better off if we'd just stop killing the animals, their medicinal plants, and the habitats in which both live. Perhaps some day. This article was reprinted in several newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and a couple of other similar-sized US daily publications.
The topic of how endangered wild animals seek out and use rare medicinal plants to heal themselves (zoopharmacognosy) fascinated me (and still does), since it was an emerging field in science at the time and could have dramatic implications for human health and our global environment. Imagine wild animals teaching domesticated humans how to cure some of our nastiest diseases. My conclusion? Follow the animals. We'd be much better off if we'd just stop killing the animals, their medicinal plants, and the habitats in which both live. Perhaps some day. This article was reprinted in several newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and a couple of other similar-sized US daily publications.
I have been studying zoopharmacognosy / animal self-medication using finches for the past seven years as a hobby. I have set up a website which I think will go a long way to saving an awful lot of pain that captive finches are subjected to needlessly. Have a look at:
http://astorwilliam.tripod.com/
Please include a link to my website so that people will come to know about my findings. Thank you.
Please tell me whether you want me to place a link to your blog from my website.
Posted by William Astor on March 29, 2008 at 04:58 AM JST #