Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Kew Herbarium (2019)

us.toa.st

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 12 posts

Re: The Kew Herbarium (2019)

#5

Post by kjellsbells »

mykowebhn wrote: post #4
fridek wrote: post #3

Kew Gardens are among the reasons why I haven't left London yet. Visit if you can.

I've volunteered at the Berkeley Herbarium and visited both the Brooklyn and Missouri Botanical Gardens. My next stop has to be Kew Gardens!

British people are crazy about their gardening. And crazy good at it too (the climate helps).

After you do Kew, try Sissinghurst.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissinghurst_Castle_Garden?wpr...

Kew also has an extension in Sussex, Wakefield, which is excellent and much less trafficked than the London site.

By the way, one of the best ways to reach Kew is by riverboat from Westminster. Really great way to see London.

Re: The Kew Herbarium (2019)

#7

Post by n4r9 »

kjellsbells wrote: post #5
mykowebhn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've volunteered at the Berkeley Herbarium and visited both the Brooklyn and Missouri Botanical Gardens. My next stop has to be Kew Gardens!

British people are crazy about their gardening. And crazy good at it too (the climate helps). After you do Kew, try Sissinghurst. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissinghurst_Castle_Garden?wpr... Kew also has an extension in Sussex, Wakefield, which is excellent and much less trafficked than the London site. By the way, one of the best ways to reach Kew is by riverboat from Westminster. Really great way to see London.

RHS Wisley is also fantastic. Unfortunately slightly more difficult to get to; you really need to drive there.

Agreed about the riverboats. Tried the Thames clippers for the first time a few weeks ago. They're delightfully empty during weekdays and serve drinks and snacks on board.

Re: The Kew Herbarium (2019)

#8

Post by tnjm »

neves wrote: post #6

The world center of biopiracy.

Doesn't the concept of biopiracy imply that the products of millions of years of evolution belong to modern nation states?

What if, instead, we either observe that they simply exist, or imbue them with their own rights, or consider them the birthright of all humanity?

We've seen that attempts to consider them as intellectual property for the purposes of ensuring their conservation have failed. We can also see that it hasn't driven the anticipated licensing revenue flows to poorer nations. But which approach would lead to greater good for humankind over a long time horizon?

Re: The Kew Herbarium (2019)

#10

Post by Angostura »

tnjm wrote: post #8
neves wrote: post #6

The world center of biopiracy.

Doesn't the concept of biopiracy imply that the products of millions of years of evolution belong to modern nation states? What if, instead, we either observe that they simply exist , or imbue them with their own rights, or consider them the birthright of all humanity? We've seen that attempts to consider them as intellectual property for the purposes of ensuring their conservation have failed. We can also see that i…

I don’t think it’s at all reasonable to accuse Kew of biopiracy - their collections were, in large part the product of pure exploration.

However, there certainly are cases in the Amazon of folks visiting native communities, quizzing them to extract hard-won knowledge about the potential medical efficacy of local plants, collecting samples and then disappearing off to commercialise the results.

It’s not the results of evolution that belong to a modern nation state, but the intellectual property of the communities certainly is valuable- as can be seen from the efforts made to extract it, rather than just collecting plant samples at random.

I think you are confusing things by conflating the thing and the knowledge of the thing.

The Higgs Boson exists, irrespective of human knowledge. That doesn’t prevent Peter Higgs from garnering some kind of reward for his work.

Post reply on HN