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id="content" class="hfeed"><div class="resultsLabel clearfix"><div class="thumb"><img alt="SPECIMENS" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/specimens/specimens-45.gif" width="45" height="45"></div><h2>SPECIMENS</h2> This series examines the search for life -- not wishful thinking about extraterrestrials, but the myriad strange life forms with which we share this planet. It looks beyond Darwin's accomplishments to find a number of colorful characters whose discoveries of new species have transformed our lives in ways we scarcely recognize. The writer is Richard Conniff, author of "The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth."</div><div class="post-82464 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens tag-cancer tag-edward-jenner tag-endangered-and-extinct-species tag-flowers-and-plants tag-john-hunter tag-malaria tag-medicine-and-health tag-smallpox tag-trees-and-shrubs entry latestEntry" id="entry-82464"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-02-27T22:30:04+00:00" title="February 27, 2011, 5:30 pm"> February 27, 2011, 5:30 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/how-species-save-our-lives/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/how-species-save-our-lives/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to How Species Save Our Lives">How Species Save Our Lives</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/cancer/" rel="tag">Cancer</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/edward-jenner/" rel="tag">Edward Jenner</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/endangered-and-extinct-species/" rel="tag">Endangered and Extinct Species</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/flowers-and-plants/" rel="tag">Flowers and Plants</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/john-hunter/" rel="tag">John Hunter</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/malaria/" rel="tag">Malaria</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/medicine-and-health/" rel="tag">Medicine and Health</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/smallpox/" rel="tag">Smallpox</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/trees-and-shrubs/" rel="tag">Trees and Shrubs</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly>When adding up the benefits from three centuries of species discoveries, I’m tempted to start, and also stop, with Sir Hans Sloane. A London physician and naturalist in the 18th century, he collected everything from insects to elephant tusks. And like a lot of naturalists, he was ridiculed for it, notably by his friend Horace Walpole, who scoffed at Sloane’s fondness for “sharks with one ear, and spiders as big as geese!” Sloane’s collections would in time give rise to the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum, London. Not a bad legacy for one lifetime. But it pales beside the result of a collecting trip to Jamaica, on which Sloane also invented milk chocolate.</p><p>We still scoff at naturalists today. We also tend to forget how much we benefit from their work. Since this is the final column in this series about how the discovery of species has changed our lives, let me put it as plainly as possible: Were it not for the work of naturalists, you and I would probably be dead. Or if alive, we would be far likelier to be crippled, in pain, or otherwise incapacitated.</p><div class="w190 right"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/25/opinion/conniff8_hunter/conniff8_hunter-articleInline.jpg" id="100000000662947" width="190" height="248" alt="John Hunter"/><span class="credit">Painting by Joshua Reynolds</span> <span class="caption">John Hunter, a British physician, emphasized the importance of observing the natural world.</span></div><p>Large swaths of what we now regard as basic medical knowledge came originally from naturalists. John Hunter, for instance, was a colorful London physician, a generation or two after Sloane, and his passion for animals made him a model for Dr. Dolittle. (He may also have been the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for his nighttime work sneaking cadavers in by the back door.) While others were only dimly beginning to contemplate the connection between humans and other animals, he made detailed flesh-and-blood comparisons, discovering, among other things, how bones grow and what course the olfactory nerves travel. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/how-species-save-our-lives/#more-82464" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/how-species-save-our-lives/" data-title="Specimens: How Species Save Our Lives" data-description="The flourishing and study of species has been crucial to the survival of humankind. How can we keep them from disappearing? "></div></div><hr/><div class="post-81457 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-uncategorized tag-espionage tag-james-bond tag-natural-history tag-ornithology tag-species entry " id="entry-81457"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-02-20T22:30:45+00:00" title="February 20, 2011, 5:30 pm"> February 20, 2011, 5:30 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/species-seekers-and-spies/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/species-seekers-and-spies/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Species Seekers and Spies">Species Seekers and Spies</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/espionage/" rel="tag">Espionage</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/james-bond/" rel="tag">James Bond</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/ornithology/" rel="tag">ornithology</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/species/" rel="tag">species</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/18/opinion/specimens_moth/specimens_moth-blog427.jpg" id="100000000650465" width="427" height="244" alt="Death’s Head Sphinx Moth, <i/>Acherontia atropos” /><span class=" credit">Unknown Artist, ca. 19th century</span><span class="caption">Death’s Head Sphinx Moth, Acherontia atropos</span></div><p>There’s a scene early in the 2002 film “Die Another Day,” where James Bond poses as an ornithologist in Havana, with binoculars in hand and a book, “Birds of the West Indies,” tucked under one arm. “Oh, I’m just here for the birds,” he ventures, when the fetching heroine, Jinx Johnson, played by Halle Berry, makes her notably unfeathered entrance.</p><p>It was an in-joke, of course. That field guide had been written by the real-life James Bond, an American ornithologist who was neither dashing nor a womanizer, and certainly not a spy. Bond’s name just happened to have the right bland and thoroughly British ring to it. So the novelist Ian Fleming — himself a weekend birder in Jamaica — latched onto it when he first concocted his thriller spy series in the 1950s.</p><p>The link between naturalists and spies goes well beyond Fleming, of course, and it might seem as if this ought to be flattering to the naturalists. While the James Bonds and Jinx Johnsons of spy fiction are trading arch sex talk in the glamor spots of the world, real naturalists tend to be sweating in tropical sinkholes, or wearing out their eyes studying the genitalia of Junebugs. (That’s not a joke, by the way: Genitalia evolve faster than other traits and often serve as the key to species identification, especially in insects. The Phalloblaster, a device worthy of Bond, was invented to make the job easier by inflating the parts in question.) And yet over the years I’ve found that naturalists don’t actually like the connection at all. The suspicion that they may be spies just complicates the difficult job of getting access to habitats and specimens in foreign countries, which are often already leery of their odd collecting behavior. It can also get them jailed, or even murdered. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/species-seekers-and-spies/#more-81457" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/species-seekers-and-spies/" data-title="Specimens: Species Seekers and Spies" data-description="Secret agents take note: naturalists are often the first to environmental upheavals that fuel our wars. "></div></div><hr/><div class="post-80213 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-_featured tag-evolution tag-natural-history tag-race tag-racism tag-species entry " id="entry-80213"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-02-13T22:00:56+00:00" title="February 13, 2011, 5:00 pm"> February 13, 2011, 5:00 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/race-sex-and-the-trials-a-young-explorer/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/race-sex-and-the-trials-a-young-explorer/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Race, Sex and the Trials of a Young Explorer">Race, Sex and the Trials of a Young Explorer</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/evolution/" rel="tag">Evolution</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/race/" rel="tag">Race</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/racism/" rel="tag">racism</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/species/" rel="tag">species</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly></p><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/11/opinion/11op-image2/11op-image2-blog427.jpg" id="100000000601838" width="427" height="399" alt="Du Chaillu meeting a gorilla."/><span class="credit">Stories of the Gorilla Country, 1895</span><span class="caption">The explorer Paul Du Chaillu depicted his African adventures in books, but critics accused him of exaggerating. </span></div><p>In 1859, Paul Du Chaillu, a young explorer of French origin and adopted American nationality, wandered out of the jungle after a four-year expedition in Gabon. He brought with him complete specimens of 20 gorillas, an animal almost unknown outside West Africa. The gorilla’s resemblance to humans astonished many people, especially after Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” later that year. The politician <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_M._Stanton">Edwin M. Stanton</a> was soon calling Abraham Lincoln “the original gorilla” and joking that Du Chaillu was a fool to have gone to Africa for what he could as easily have found in Springfield, Ill.<br/> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/race-sex-and-the-trials-a-young-explorer/#more-80213" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/race-sex-and-the-trials-a-young-explorer/" data-title="Specimens: Race, Sex and the Trials of a Young Explorer" data-description="Even as scientific knowledge flourished in the 19th century, many naturalists remained steeped in racial prejudices and stereotypes. "></div></div><hr/><div class="post-78945 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-_featured tag-animals tag-endangered-and-extinct-species tag-natural-history entry " id="entry-78945"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-02-03T22:30:12+00:00" title="February 3, 2011, 5:30 pm"> February 3, 2011, 5:30 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/lost-and-gone-forever/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/lost-and-gone-forever/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Lost and Gone Forever">Lost and Gone Forever</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/animals/" rel="tag">Animals</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/endangered-and-extinct-species/" rel="tag">Endangered and Extinct Species</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly>Species die. It has become a catastrophic fact of modern life. On our present course, by E.O. Wilson’s estimate, half of all plant and animal species could be extinct by 2100 — that is, within the lifetime of a child born today. Kenya stands to lose its lions within 20 years. India is finishing off its tigers. Deforestation everywhere means that thousands of species too small or obscure to be kept on life support in a zoo simply vanish each year.</p><p>So it’s startling to discover that the very idea of extinction was unthinkable, even heresy, only a few lifetimes ago. The terrible notion that a piece of God’s creation could be swept off the face of the Earth only became a reality on January 21, 1796, and it was a body blow to Western orthodoxy. It required “not only the rejection of some of the fondest beliefs of mankind,” paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson once wrote, “but also the development of fundamentally new ways of thinking.” The science of extinction was one of the great achievements of the 18th century, he thought, a necessary preamble to Darwinian evolution, and almost as disturbing.</p><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/02/opinion/conniff5_tooth/conniff5_tooth-blog427.jpg" id="100000000590357" width="427" height="371" alt="Mastodon molar tooth"/><span class="credit">Mastodon molar tooth (YPM VP 011985), Quaternary, Pleistocene. New Haven County, Connecticut. Yale Peabody Museum. Photographer Jerry Domian/Yale University.</span><span class="caption">Mastodon molar tooth</span></div><p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/lost-and-gone-forever/#more-78945" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/lost-and-gone-forever/" data-title="Specimens: Lost and Gone Forever" data-description="The discovery that species could become extinct shook the 19th century view of the world, and it should continue to trouble us today. "></div></div><hr/><div class="post-77967 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-_featured tag-natural-history entry " id="entry-77967"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-01-30T22:00:56+00:00" title="January 30, 2011, 5:00 pm"> January 30, 2011, 5:00 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/the-brittle-stars-danced-the-stingray-smoked-a-pipe/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/the-brittle-stars-danced-the-stingray-smoked-a-pipe/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Brittle-Stars Danced. The Stingray Smoked a Pipe.">The Brittle-Stars Danced. The Stingray Smoked a Pipe.</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/26/opinion/conniff4_monkey/conniff4_monkey-blog427.jpg" id="100000000581411" width="427" height="266" alt="A highly fanciful 1833 rendering of a South American monkey."/><span class="credit">W.H. Lizars, 1833, Courtesy of Richard Conniff</span><span class="caption">A highly fanciful 1833 rendering of a South American monkey.</span></div><p>When my children were small, we often read them Edward Lear’s “The Jumblies,” a not very edifying book of nonsense that we all loved. The Jumblies were wildly impractical souls who</p><blockquote><p>… sailed away in a Sieve, they did,<br/> In a Sieve they sailed so fast,<br/> With only a beautiful pea-green veil<br/> Tied with a riband by way of a sail,<br/> To a small tobacco-pipe mast …</p></blockquote><p>Back then, I was often away from home for weeks at a time, traveling in distant countries with biologists whose work sometimes required them to do the equivalent of sailing in a sieve. One botanist, for instance, recalled flying out of a war zone in a cargo plane that also carried a pig tied to a 55-gallon drum of gasoline. The Jumblies would have been right there (and probably flicking ashes from their cigars).<br/> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/the-brittle-stars-danced-the-stingray-smoked-a-pipe/#more-77967" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/the-brittle-stars-danced-the-stingray-smoked-a-pipe/" data-title="Specimens: The Brittle-Stars Danced. The Stingray Smoked a Pipe." data-description="In the 19th century the fantastical worlds of species discovery and nonsense literature were intertwined."></div></div><hr/><div class="post-77555 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens tag-history-of-science tag-natural-history tag-species entry " id="entry-77555"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-01-23T22:10:07+00:00" title="January 23, 2011, 5:10 pm"> January 23, 2011, 5:10 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/heroic-naturalists-or-imperialist-dogs/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/heroic-naturalists-or-imperialist-dogs/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Heroic Naturalists or Imperialist Dogs?">Heroic Naturalists or Imperialist Dogs?</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/history-of-science/" rel="tag">history of science</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/species/" rel="tag">species</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly>What does it mean to discover a species? Who should get the credit for it? Why did early naturalists think it worth risking their lives, and often losing them, to ship home the first specimens of a previously unknown butterfly or bat? These turn out to be tangled questions, and it is easy to get stuck on the thorns.</p><p>Not long ago, for instance, I wrote that a 19th-century French missionary and naturalist in China, Père Armand David, had “discovered” the snub-nosed golden monkey. A reader sent me this somewhat testy comment: “The answer to the question ‘who discovered it’ is actually the Chinese.” Père David had merely “observed it and introduced it (and many other animals) to the West and into the Western zoological system.”<br/> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/heroic-naturalists-or-imperialist-dogs/#more-77555" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/heroic-naturalists-or-imperialist-dogs/" data-title="Specimens: Heroic Naturalists or Imperialist Dogs?" data-description="The image of early naturalists as exploitative hunters ignores their contributions to science and humanity."></div></div><hr/><div class="post-75759 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-_featured tag-natural-history tag-species entry " id="entry-75759"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-01-16T22:35:22+00:00" title="January 16, 2011, 5:35 pm"> January 16, 2011, 5:35 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/dying-for-discovery/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/dying-for-discovery/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Dying for Discovery">Dying for Discovery</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/species/" rel="tag">species</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/14/opinion/conniff2_naturalists2/conniff2_naturalists2-blog427-v3.jpg" id="100000000557533" width="427" height="291" alt="Al Gentry examined leaves during Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program expedition to Ecuador in January 1991."/><span class="credit">Randall Hyman</span><span class="caption">Al Gentry examined leaves during Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program expedition to Ecuador in January 1991.</span></div><p>Almost 20 years ago now, in western Ecuador, I traveled with a team of extraordinary biologists studying a remnant of forest as it was being hacked down around us. Al Gentry, a gangling figure in a grimy T-shirt and jeans frayed from chronic tree climbing, was a botanist whose strategy toward all hazards was to pretend that they didn’t exist. At one point, a tree came crashing down beside him after he lost his footing on a slope. Still on his back, he reached out for an orchid growing on the trunk and said, “Oh, that’s Gongora,” as casually as if he had just spotted an old friend on a city street.<br/> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/dying-for-discovery/#more-75759" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/dying-for-discovery/" data-title="Specimens: Dying for Discovery" data-description="The expeditions of pioneering naturalists often turned fatal, but their sacrifice was our gain."></div></div><hr/><div class="post-75755 post type-post status-publish hentry category-specimens category-uncategorized tag-decoupage tag-natural-history tag-species entry " id="entry-75755"> <header class="postHeader"><div class="postMetaHeader"> <span class="kicker"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/">Specimens</a></span> <time datetime="2011-01-09T22:28:37+00:00" title="January 9, 2011, 5:28 pm"> January 9, 2011, 5:28 pm</time><span class="postMetaHeaderCommentCount commentCount"><a class="commentCountLink icon commentIcon hidden commentCountNumberOnly" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/life-studies/"></a></span></div><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/life-studies/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Life Studies">Life Studies</a></h3> <address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-conniff/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by RICHARD CONNIFF">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></address></header><div class="entry-content"><p><webonly><div class="inlineModule"><div class="entry entryTagsModule"><h4>Tags:</h4><p class="meta tags"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/decoupage/" rel="tag">decoupage</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/natural-history/" rel="tag">Natural History</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/species/" rel="tag">species</a></p></p></div></p></div><p></webonly><div class="w427"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/05/opinion/conniff1_cabinet/conniff1_cabinet-blog427.jpg" id="100000000515914" width="427" height="305" alt="The cabinet decorated front panel, left, swings around on a lazy susan to reveal a collection of whiskey glasses and decanters."/><span class="credit">Roger U. Williams</span><span class="caption">A cabinet that belonged to the author’s mother-in-law. The decorated front panel, left, rotates to reveal a collection of whiskey glasses and decanters.</span></div><p>In the corner of our dining room, there’s an old half-round cabinet on wheels. It has a handsomely decorated front-panel that swings around on a lazy susan to reveal a collection of whiskey glasses and decanters on the other side. It’s what’s sometimes called a hide-a-bar, though we use it now mainly as a place to charge our cellphones. We keep it prominently displayed because we like it. But it also oddly embodies the split life of my mother-in-law, from whom we inherited it. And it has lately shaped the course of my own life both as a writer and a son-in-law. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/life-studies/#more-75755" class="more-link">Read more…</a></p></div></div><div class="entry-meta"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom" data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423oe_/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/life-studies/" data-title="Specimens: Life Studies" data-description="The author pays tribute to his mother-in-law and the odd, inspiring menagerie he found in her attic. 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I know this because people — mostly but not always random strangers — tell me so.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/anxiety/">More From Anxiety »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 12, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/writing-about-what-haunts-us/" title="Writing About What Haunts Us">Writing About What Haunts Us</a></h5><p>I’ve been trying to lie about this story for years.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 5, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/rapturous-research/" title="Rapturous Research">Rapturous Research</a></h5><p>I have a compulsion: I am addicted to looking things up.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/draft/">More From Draft »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 11, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/back-when-i-was-packing/" title="Back When I Was Packing">Back When I Was Packing</a></h5><p>A movie-spawned fascination with Lugers bumps up against the reality of today’s assault weapons.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 14, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/only-in-my-dreams/" title="Only in My Dreams?">Only in My Dreams?</a></h5><p>Waking life can be as surreal, alarming and absurd as the other kind.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/dick-cavett/">More From Dick Cavett »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 11, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/the-dicey-parent-teacher-duet/" title="The Dicey Parent-Teacher Duet">The Dicey Parent-Teacher Duet </a></h5><p>When does a helping hand become a total nuisance?</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 20, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/preparing-students-for-a-newtown-like-disaster/" title="Preparing Students for a Newtown-like Disaster">Preparing Students for a Newtown-like Disaster</a></h5><p>Children are already thinking about gunmen in schools, every time they have a lockdown drill.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/schooling/">More From Schooling »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 11, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/a-strange-sail/" title="A Strange Sail">A Strange Sail</a></h5><p>The short but pitched battle between the Hatteras and the Alabama was unique, and had long-lasting military consequences.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 10, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/the-spectacular-rise-and-fall-of-fitz-john-porter/" title="The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Fitz John Porter">The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Fitz John Porter</a></h5><p>Arrogant and incompetent, or a Civil War hero wronged by a petty former commander?</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/">More From Disunion »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 10, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/the-longest-nights/" title="The Longest Nights">The Longest Nights</a></h5><p>Gray skies and short days are conducive to creativity, or, in any event, to work.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 3, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/beginnings/" title="Beginnings">Beginnings</a></h5><p>A 2013 wish list, for Congress, the NFL and certain individuals far too self-regarding to mention here.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/timothy-egan/">More From Timothy Egan »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 10, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/forced-entry/" title="Forced Entry">Forced Entry</a></h5><p>Was I an accomplice to a rescue, or a break-in?</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 3, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/arianna-huffington-and-me/" title="Arianna Huffington and Me">Arianna Huffington and Me</a></h5><p>The first in a month of Townies essays from Washington, D.C.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/townies/">More From Townies »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 9, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/things-i-saw-no-52/" title="Things I Saw — No. 52">Things I Saw — No. 52</a></h5><p>The artist draws things he saw in Michigan, Indiana, New York and Canada.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 3, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/things-i-saw-no-51/" title="Things I Saw — No. 51">Things I Saw — No. 51</a></h5><p>The artist draws things he saw in Michigan and Ohio.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/things-i-saw/">More From Things I Saw »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 9, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/robert-borks-tragedy/" title="Robert Bork’s Tragedy">Robert Bork’s Tragedy</a></h5><p>Judge Bork was a tragic figure, not because he was dealt an unjust hand when he was rejected for the Supreme Court — he wasn’t — but because of his inability to understand what had happened.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 26, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/26/the-n-r-a-at-the-bench/" title="The N.R.A. at the Bench">The N.R.A. at the Bench</a></h5><p>The National Rifle Association has taken an increasingly active role in judicial nominations.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/linda-greenhouse/">More From Linda Greenhouse »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 9, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/the-obama-coalition-vs-corporate-america/" title="The Obama Coalition vs. Corporate America">The Obama Coalition vs. Corporate America</a></h5><p>How much does the shape and scope of the president’s electoral success threaten the policy-making ascendancy of big business?</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/thomas-b-edsall/">More From Thomas B. Edsall »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 9, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/hagelian-dialectic/" title="Hagelian Dialectic">Hagelian Dialectic</a></h5><p>Brooks and Collins on the defense nominee and the intertwined fates of his former colleagues Biden, Clinton, Lieberman, McCain, Graham — and Obama.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 2, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/the-fiscal-riff/" title="The Fiscal Riff">The Fiscal Riff</a></h5><p>Brooks and Collins on some other cliffs we might fall off and the overlooked virtues of constitutional monarchy.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-conversation/">More From The Conversation »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 8, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/for-drug-users-hope-in-a-swift-response/" title="For Drug Users, a Swift Response Is the Best Medicine">For Drug Users, a Swift Response Is the Best Medicine</a></h5><p>An initiative in Vermont has shown that, for drug offenders, quick intervention and treatment, not drawn-out court punishments, work best.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 19, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/at-years-end-news-of-a-global-health-success/" title="At Year’s End, News of a Global Health Success">At Year’s End, News of a Global Health Success</a></h5><p>The stunning drop in global child mortality is proof that poor countries are not doomed to eternal misery. Here’s how it happened.</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/fixes/">More From Fixes »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 7, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/favoritism-is-good/" title="Favoritism Is Good">Favoritism Is Good</a></h5><p>An argument for the double standard, abetted by a new book about fairness.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 24, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/religious-exemptions-and-the-liberal-state-a-christmas-column/" title="Religious Exemptions and the Liberal State: A Christmas Column">Religious Exemptions and the Liberal State: A Christmas Column</a></h5><p>A new book asks, should religion enjoy a special status not granted to other world views or systems of belief?</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/stanley-fish/">More From Stanley Fish »</a></p></div></div><div class="tabContent"><div class="entry"> <span class="date">January 7, 2013</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/favoritism-is-good/" title="Favoritism Is Good">Favoritism Is Good</a></h5><p>An argument for the double standard, abetted by a new book about fairness.</p></div><div class="entry"> <span class="date">December 24, 2012</span><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/religious-exemptions-and-the-liberal-state-a-christmas-column/" title="Religious Exemptions and the Liberal State: A Christmas Column">Religious Exemptions and the Liberal State: A Christmas Column</a></h5><p>A new book asks, should religion enjoy a special status not granted to other world views or systems of belief?</p></div><div class="entry"><p class="more"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/stanley-fish/">More From Stanley Fish »</a></p></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">NYTD.TabSet("tabWidget-8");</script><script type="text/javascript">new NYTD.Blogs.TabSetOverlayRevealer('overlayTrigger_controller').init();</script></div><div class="box module nocontent ad" id="MiddleRight"><div class="bigAdContainer"> <script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/// if ((typeof adxpos_MiddleRight != "undefined") && (typeof adxads[adxpos_MiddleRight] != "undefined")){document.write(adxads[adxpos_MiddleRight]);} ///*]]>*/</script><script type="text/javascript">// if ((typeof adxpos_MiddleRight == "undefined") || (typeof adxads[adxpos_MiddleRight] == "undefined")) { if($("MiddleRight")) { $("MiddleRight").hide(); } } //</script><noscript><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=cookie&pos=MiddleRight"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_remote.html?type=noscript&page=blog.nytimes.com/opinionator/category/specimens&posall=TopAd,Bar1,Position1,Position1B,Top5,SponLink,MiddleRight,Box1,Box3,Box3A,Bottom3,Right5A,Right6A,Right7A,Right8A,Middle1C,Bottom7,Bottom8,Bottom9,Header1,Header2,Header3,Inv1,Inv2,CcolumnSS,Middle4,Left1B,Frame6A,Left2,Left3,Left4,Left5,Left6,Left7,Left8,Left9,JMNow1,JMNow2,JMNow3,JMNow4,JMNow5,JMNow6,Feature1,Spon3,ADX_CLIENTSIDE,SponLink2&pos=MiddleRight&query=qstring&keywords=?"></a></noscript></div></div><div class="box module nocontent opinionHighlights"><h4>Opinionator Highlights</h4><div class="entry"><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/what-is-a-hacktivist/" title="What is a ‘Hacktivist’?">What is a ‘Hacktivist’?</a></h5><h6 class="byline">By PETER LUDLOW</h6><p class="summary">The death of Aaron Swartz is sure to heat up the ‘lexical warfare’ over the meaning of the word ‘hacktivism.’</p></div><div class="entry"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/someones-knocking-at-my-door/"><img alt="Thumbnail" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/opinionator/anxiety/anxiety75.gif" class="w75 right"/></a><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/someones-knocking-at-my-door/" title="Someone’s Knocking at My Door">Someone’s Knocking at My Door</a></h5><h6 class="byline">By LáSZLó KRASZNAHORKAI</h6><p class="summary">A Hungarian novelist awaits a visit from hate and violence personified.</p></div><div class="entry"><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/the-joy-of-zadie-smith-and-thomas-aquinas/" title="The Joy of Zadie Smith and Thomas Aquinas">The Joy of Zadie Smith and Thomas Aquinas</a></h5><h6 class="byline">By GARY GUTTING</h6><p class="summary">Bringing together the writing of two very different thinkers to illuminate a fundamental question.</p></div><div class="entry"><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/for-drug-users-hope-in-a-swift-response/" title="For Drug Users, a Swift Response Is the Best Medicine">For Drug Users, a Swift Response Is the Best Medicine</a></h5><h6 class="byline">By DAVID BORNSTEIN</h6><p class="summary">An initiative in Vermont has shown that, for drug offenders, quick intervention and treatment, not drawn-out court punishments, work best.</p></div><div class="entry"><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/the-freedom-of-faith-a-christmas-sermon/" title="The Freedom of Faith: A Christmas Sermon">The Freedom of Faith: A Christmas Sermon</a></h5><h6 class="byline">By SIMON CRITCHLEY</h6><p class="summary">What the Grand Inquisitor scene in “The Brothers Karamazov” can tell us about the meaning of faith, freedom, happiness and the diabolic satisfaction of our desires.</p></div></div><div class="box module nocontent"><h4>Previous Series</h4><div class="entry"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/line-by-line/"><img alt="Thumbnail" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/opinionator/linebyline/linebyline75.gif" class="w75 right"/></a><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/line-by-line/" title="Line by Line">Line by Line</a></h5><p class="summary">A series on the basics of drawing, presented by the artist and author James McMullan, beginning with line, perspective, proportion and structure.</p></div><div class="entry"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/steven-strogatz/"><img alt="Thumbnail" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/opinionator/contributors/strogatz75.jpg" class="w75 right"/></a><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/steven-strogatz/" title="Steven Strogatz">The Elements of Math</a></h5><p class="summary">A series on math, from the basic to the baffling, by Steven Strogatz. Beginning with why numbers are helpful and finishing with the mysteries of infinity.</p></div><div class="entry"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/living-rooms/"><img alt="Thumbnail" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/opinionator/pogs/livingrooms75.gif" class="w75 right"/></a><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/living-rooms/" title="Living Rooms">Living Rooms</a></h5><p class="summary">The past, present and future of domestic life, with contributions from artists, journalists, design experts and historians.</p></div><div class="entry"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/"><img alt="Thumbnail" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/specimens/specimens-75.gif" class="w75 right"/></a><h5><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/" title="Specimens">Specimens</a></h5><p class="summary">This series by Richard Conniff looks at how species discovery has transformed our lives.</p></div></div><div class="box module nocontent feeds"><h4>Subscribe</h4><div class="entry subColumn-2"><div class="column"><ul class="rssCcolumn flushBottom"><li><a title="Subscribe to Opinionator RSS Feed" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/feed/">Opinionator RSS</a></li></ul></div><div class="column lastColumn"><ul class="rssCcolumn flushBottom"><li><a title="Subscribe to Specimens RSS Feed" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130114235423/http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/specimens/feed/">Specimens RSS</a></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="box module nocontent ad" id="Box1"> <script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/// if ((typeof adxpos_Box1 != "undefined") && (typeof adxads[adxpos_Box1] != "undefined")){document.write(adxads[adxpos_Box1]);} ///*]]>*/</script><script type="text/javascript">// if ((typeof adxpos_Box1 == "undefined") || (typeof adxads[adxpos_Box1] == "undefined")) { if($("Box1")) { $("Box1").hide(); 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