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Pioneer Species and Climax Species Epilogue Pioneer Species and Climax Species The society tends to define scientific research as individual activities. Credits of theories go to individual authors. Patents are awarded to specific individuals and companies. But most scientific progresses and regresses are determined by the social environment. A look at interactions of different species in nature will help us understand academic and social dynamics. Biologists often classify species into pioneer species and climax species. Pioneer species, like alders and clovers, love the sunshine, and both fix nitrogen, an energy intensive process. As they absorb solar energy to generate nutrients for themselves, they enrich the soil around them. In newly disturbed lands with poor soil content, pioneer species flourish. As pioneer species toil away, the soil they inhabit becomes fertile and rich. Over time, climax species gradually move in. Climax species, like lawn grasses and spruces, require nutritious soil. But they require less solar energy to generate nutrients themselves. So they can tolerate shade. As a forest becomes dense, new plants have to stay in the shade for a long time, waiting for old trees to retire. Pioneer species, which need an abundance of sunshine to generate nutrients, could not wait long. Gradually, climax species take over the landscape. Pioneer species are forced to look for new places to survive. This is why pioneer species are also called refugee species by biologists. On islands in northern region, poplars, a type of pioneer species, grow on the edge. Spruces grow at the core of the islands. The locations of poplars and spruces form a distinct image of periphery and core relation between pioneer and climax species. We love climax species and often detest pioneer species. Fertilizers, which often contain herbicides to kill pioneer species, are applied lavishly on green lawns. Forestry industries encourage the growth of climax species, like spruces, and suppress the growth of pioneer species, like alders. But why? Firstly, an abundance of climax species clearly signals the richness of the land and of the landowner. While pioneer species improve soil quality, they also indicate that the land needs to be improved, which is a sore embarrassment to proud land owners. Secondly, pioneer species do not make high quality products. Because their priority is to generate nutrients, they dedicate less energy to their immune systems. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 125 J. Chen, The Unity of Science and Economics, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-3466-9 126 Epilogue: Pioneer Species and Climax Species This vulnerability leads to frequent invasion by other organisms, which lead to unsightly scars on their bodies. Hence, alders are deemed low quality timbers. In their openness and inability to defend themselves, pioneers are more likely to accept different genes and ideas from distant species and camps. This allows pio- neers to adapt, innovate and initiate major changes. In times of poverty and turmoil, pioneers are often enlisted to help. In poor areas, farmers who cannot afford chemical fertilizers rotate the growing season of crops and clover, which is a pioneer species that enrich the soil. During the Second World War, the British government found that Alan Turing, a pioneer in understanding how the mind works, can help decoding enemy messages. But after the war, the British government found Alan Turing himself needed help. Turing rejected gov- ernment’s help and killed himself. As a landscape matures, climax species become dominant and biodiversity declines. The progress of a system is often marked by the dominance of climax species over pioneer species. In modern societies, many medical and public health measures, such as sterilization and antibiotics, aim at eliminating microbes, which are often pioneer species. The short term benefits of these measures are very sig- nificant. But long term harms of many of these measures are gradually being recognized. Nowadays, doctors are less eager to prescribe antibiotics to patients. Over-sterilization deprives us from encountering stimulations that aid us in developing strong immune systems. As the environment becomes sterile, our bodies and minds follow suit. The social groups that demand highly sterile natural and social environments often suffer from below-replacement fertility rates, rendering themselves biologically sterile. If academic and social institutions continue to sterilize the social environment, the aging society will progress into a dying society, a pattern that has occurred consistently in the history of human societies. More than ten years ago, Galbraith (2000) discussed the social environment of the economist profession and the prospect of a theoretical revolution. He wrote: Leading active members of today’s economics profession …… have joined together into a kind of politburo for correct economic thinking. As a general rule–as one might expect from a gentleman’s club–this has placed them on the wrong side of every important policy issue, and not just recently but for decades. …… And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject. No one loses face, in this club, for having been wrong. No one is disinvited from presenting papers at later annual meetings. And still less is anyone from the outside invited in. …… The reduction of many of today’s leading economists to footnote status is overdue. But would those economists recognize a theoretical revolution if one were to occur? One is entitled to doubt it. 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