The MSS, Science, and You

A laboratory is often envisioned as an sterile place full of glass and metal, tubes and tables and one slightly eccentric looking gentleman.

A cave is about as far from this environment as one could imagine. The MSS is interested in science in which the researcher is just as likely to be lying in a pool of water, turning over rocks, and peering through a hand lens, muddy to her ears.

Modern cave science, or speleology, is barely one hundred years old, if you count the efforts of Edouard Martel as marking its beginnings. Speleology in the United States, at least that variety of theory based on rigorous observation and experiment by people with formal scientific training, is probably barely 60 years in the making. Many of the people who formulated the groundwork for groundwater hydrology, cave geology, speleobiology, and cave ecology are still quite lively, thank you. Others, while gone, still live in the memories of cavers who knew them as breathing human beings, not footnotes in some academic journal.

What does this have to do with you? Just this.

Science, and the promotion of cave research has always been one of the major goals of the Missouri Speleological Survey. Though our major emphasis has always been on the discovery and mapping of new caves in the state, scientific research has never been far behind. Two of the three founders of the MSS have advanced degrees in scientific fields, and the third worked for a medical supply firm. Just knowing where and how long Missouri's caves are has never been quite enough. Discovering and documenting the geological and biological contents and processes which occur in Missouri caves has also been a priority item, from the very beginning.

Through our Research Council, the MSS has been able to fund scientific efforts over the years. Research Council grants (whose monies come largely from the interest on donations which make up the Research Council endowment) have never been huge sums of money compared to federal or philanthropic organizations. But often a few hundred dollars for instruments, or other supplies can make a big difference whether a bit of research gets accomplished, or not. These grants are available to MSS members or cooperators, after filing a request with the Council in a prescribed format. Sometimes, these grants also are given to graduate students, doing cave- related research in Missouri. In return, the MSS receives copies of the researchers' findings, and the right of first refusal to publish their findings in Missouri Speleology.

Now that hard, scientifically verifiable data are the first line of defense in preserving Missouri's caves, scientific research is needed more than ever. And, though you need to present a legitimate field of inquiry, you needn't be a Ph. D. candidate to qualify for a little help.

More information about the requirements for Research Council funds can be obtained from Dr. David Ashley, (ashley@griffon.mwsc.edu)