Spark of Science : Rob Pringle - Issue 43 : Heroes
▻http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/spark-of-science-rob-pringle
When we think of a scientist at work, the first setting to come to mind is usually the laboratory: sterile equipment, controlled experiments, protective gear. Not so for Robert Pringle, an ecologist at Princeton University who studies the ecosystems of the “enchanting, enigmatic, and important” savannas of Africa, particularly in central Kenya and Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. There, he has examined the interactions and patterns that play out among species ranging from termites to antelope and elephants. Pringle’s heroes in ecology, the husband-and-wife team of Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, are focused on a smaller animal: the caterpillars of Costa Rica. But Pringle attributes his admiration for the pair not to the decades they’ve spent in the field, nor to the hundreds of (...)