Alouette lulu, bloc de dibuixos: Mallerenga d'aigua (Parus palustris)

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into new forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

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The tools of research are the same in all the subject areas: our imagination and our ideas, combined with criticism and controls using repeated observation and experiments. There really is no more to it. One often hears that research into animals and nature is more or less incompatible with natural experiences. The scientist is supposed to endeavour to measure and record objectively; to be led astray by subjective admiration of nature should not be permitted. This is a capital misconception. Nobody will convince me that imagination, richness of ideas and logic, the basis of research, create obstacles to one's imbibing to the full and being captivated by the spectacle of nature. Quite the opposite: admiration and respect for nature, indeed for the whole of our sorroundings, are the chief driving force behind inquisitiveness and the striving for knowledge.

Thomas Alerstam, Bird Migration

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La natura és l'artífex de tot.

Plini el Vell

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Abans de ser un lògic, s'ha de ser un home.

Ludwig Wittgenstein