The trouble with science 1

Actually that should be the trouble with scientists. The more one is able to see the patterns and themes that make the universe work, the more one hates to rely on interpretations, anything that might smack of the artistic.

So while I love the work of the Evolutionary Psychologists, their tendency to rubbish Freud at every turn seems a little like tunnel vision.

Fortunately we have Adam Phillips to mount a typically paradoxical defence: Freud?

Encyclopedia of Life

It's possible to having fleeting moments of scepticism when it comes to user-generated content. Sometimes, the last thing I want to see is other people's videos on YouTube; and the great mass of commentors on The Guardian's Comment Is Free make me want to instigate revolution; oh yes, and I've been burnt by Wikipedia, and the episode with the Dolphins*.

But this: this is genuinely fantastic. The only trouble being, it doesn't actually exist yet. Nevertheless, if they can get even a small fraction of this project off the ground, it will become a breathtaking resource. I'd be keen to know a bit more of the detail of who gets to edit (Professional biologists, right?), but otherwise, where do I sign up?

*When, in the course of writing a feature on songs about various mammals (why? Search me), I had cause to use Wikipedia for some facts, and found myself reading some mentalist screed about our dolphin overlords, come to rule the world, etc.