Naturalist vs. Biologist

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Micah calling from California.

Hi, Micah.

Welcome to the program, Micah. How are you doing?

I’m doing all right. I’ve been wondering about the words naturalist and biologist.

I’d been told back in grade school that people who studied life were called naturalists before the term biology was termed.

But I’ve been seeing more lately that people have been just calling themselves naturalists who have that same extensive life training that they study, you know, nature and everything, just like biologists.

So I’ve just been wondering, what is the actual difference, if there is any, or has naturalists just come back into vogue?

What a great question. Are you reading a lot of books about this kind of thing? Are you in school or what?

Well, I had heard in school, like I said, that Darwin was a naturalist, and then later everybody was a biologist.

But I’ve seen books by, like, E.O. Wilson, and they call him a naturalist.

Right, and he calls himself a naturalist.

A lot of people just claim that they’re naturalists.

Right, and he calls himself a naturalist, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Jefferson was a naturalist, and you’re right, Charles Darwin was a naturalist.

And historically, this term was applied to people who studied animals and animals in their biological context, in their groups, their behavior and the classification of animals.

But the word kind of has had until recently this kind of quaint sound to it, don’t you think?

I mean, it kind of makes me think of musty old books and that kind of thing.

Yeah, or like throw out in the wilderness or something.

Right, right, right. Muddy boots rather than a crisp, clean lab coat, right?

Yeah, exactly. It does have a very different kind of nuance.

That’s a nice distinction.

Yeah, yeah. And more like more of an art than a science, really.

And I think what happened was that I’ve seen people talking about the fact that when World War II came along and people had to be more applied in their science, trying to get results.

And people were moving from the countryside to the cities and working more in labs and studying more the physiology and chemistry of animals and also starting to really specialize.

It kind of mirrors, I think, the history of medicine, you know, the way that physicians used to be students of physics, which was which comes from the Greek word for nature.

And then people got much, much more specialized.

And you’re right that only in the last decade or so have some biologists been reclaiming that name, naturalist, and trying to look at the bigger picture.

So a biologist then is probably degreed where a naturalist may have a great deal of knowledge, but it’s probably self-taught.

And it’s from their own interest rather than from the work that they do for a living.

Well, I think that’s true, but I think that there were historically departments of natural history at universities,

And I think there are still a few, but I think there’s a movement among some people in the field of biology

To bring back that whole idea of natural history and a broader look at the science.

Yeah, that E.O. Wilson had extensive biological training, but he refers to himself as a naturalist.

Yeah, it’s interesting.

Yeah, as he goes about, he does do all the stuff on his own, and he is out in the muck and everything.

Yeah, out in the muck.

I think that does fit him better.

Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it, out in the muck.

And I think of Jane Goodall.

I mean, would you describe her as strictly a biologist?

I don’t think so.

No, definitely not.

Yeah.

Well, great.

That jibes pretty much with what you were saying, right?

Yeah, yeah.

That was very informative.

Okay.

Cool.

Thanks for calling, Micah.

Great.

It was fun.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

I get the sense that a naturalist is out in the field, and by the field I mean out in the world as it is given to us,

Rather than in the lab looking under a microscope, right?

I think that’s true.

We have a lot of scientists who listen to the show, though, so I’m sure if we got that wrong, we’ll be hearing about it.

Yeah, and if you’ve got a comment or a question about naturalist versus biologist or some other question along those lines,

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.