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RESEARCH TRENDS
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The formal study of rare
minerals by the scientific community, and the resulting
discovery and description of new mineral species, has
steadily declined in the United States in recent years.
While the number of new mineral species approved by
the International Mineralogical Association’s (IMA)
Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMMN)
has remained fairly constant in recent years, the number
of American scientists participating in this critical
aspect of descriptive mineralogy has fallen to alarmingly
low levels compared to where it was twenty-five or more
years ago. It is just not considered “glitzy”
science any longer, and it receives little respect (and
hence, funding) in today’s academic circles in
this country.
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MUSEUM TRENDS |
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Because of the dramatic
decline in descriptive mineralogy among American researchers,
U.S. museums and university collections have become
moribund with regard to maintaining a leadership role
in the preservation of newly discovered mineral species.
Although this lack of preservation interest may not
apply to attractive azurites, rhodochrosites and tourmalines,
for which there seems to be some modicum of funding,
it certainly applies to the uncommon, aesthetically
challenged minerals so important to research and a fuller
understanding of our environment. Without an active
scientific community to feed research collections, and
without the general public clamoring for preservation,
U.S. museums and future generations of scientists will
have to look outside the U.S. for access to these scientifically
important research specimens. Another disturbing trend
with regard to preservation of mineral collections is
that it is no longer uncommon for significant mineral
collections to languish without qualified curatorial
oversight. Without competent mineralogical stewardship
to direct, maintain and improve a collection, the long
term result can be disastrous.
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| EDUCATION TRENDS |
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Further, the general
decline in the study of mineralogy at the university
level has placed historically and scientifically important
university collections at great risk in the face of
significant funding reductions and the ever-increasing
need for classroom and laboratory space. Examples of
discarded or pillaged college collections of significant
historic and scientific value abound. This decline in
the stature of earth sciences in general has filtered
down to secondary and grammar school systems across
the country, too, and a robust natural science curriculum
is lacking in many school districts at all levels of
the educational system. Recent international educational
surveys have now placed the United States 19th in sciences
and 24th in mathematics education among the 30 OECD
countries of the world. The future of descriptive mineralogy
in the United States, like many other fundamental sciences,
indeed appears dim.
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