This exhibition is built under the framework of two international events:
- Darwin (2009): 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most important work on the origin and diversification of the species.
- Biodiversity (2010): global campaign to reduce the causes of the crisis of biodiversity.
We are Explorers
Exploration feeds off curiosity, but curiosity is driven by necessity. From the ancestral animal practice of exploring the environment to find essential resources, humans have been able to extract the necessary obstinacy to undertake expeditions in search of knowledge. Nature is, for us, an inexhaustible source of knowledge, a scenario in permanent evolution. A fascinating natural world attracts us and encourages us to explore it.
Exploring the Earth
Despite being the poor relation of the exploration adventures, the expeditions all over the world aimed at learning about plants and animals also have their epic tales. In them, we find famous people, history and iconography. When practically everything was unknown, courage was devoted to blazing new trails in conditions that now seem heroic to us. Advances in map-making, transport and the representation of nature have changed the profile of the explorer. The sponsors of the expeditions, whether monarchs or institutions, hired adventurers or professionals, depending on the moment in history. Spontaneously, other naturalists sets their sights on exploring territories closer to home. The collecting activity resulted in collections that have often been placed in museums.
Explorers in Action
A voyage through southeast Asia in 1929 by two Catalan naturalists or the current Antarctic programme in which Spanish research institutions take part are two examples of the exploration of nature in which the value of people to achieving success in the objectives is made clear.
Though distant in space and time, with different objectives and resources, in the voyage to the Orient and the Antarctic expeditions, we can find a common denominator: a shared sequence of phases of exploration in which human involvement is decisive.
Studying Nature
The world is now smaller thanks to the means of transport that multiply the possible paths to follow and trivialize the distances to be covered. At the same time, the objectives of current research involve more demanding concepts for the explorer: intensive scientific methods and long-term concepts. We reach our destination far more easily than before, but now we spend far more time in studying nature. The tools for analysing biodiversity become more complex in order to interpret a nature that become more complex as we learn more about it. Nevertheless, the objectives of exploration are inexhaustible as large pockets of biodiversity can still be found. And a feeling of urgency, motivated by the trend to lose the visible biodiversity on our planet is hurrying us up. The latest: nowadays, we are all invited to become explorers in order to actively bear witness to the state of natural systems.
Visit the online exhibition: http://www.bioexplora.cat/exploradors/index.htm