Pyrrhocactus straussii RS42 MG1187.6     5/23/21
This is a member of one of the genera that Fred Kattermann gathered into his suggested super genus of Eriosyce. The word "eriosyce," by the way, is botanical Greco-Latin meaning "hairy fig." He is, of course right in that all of the members in his proposed super genus Eriosyce have fruit that have tufts of hair in their surface. But I don't yet believe that this is a sufficiently dominant fact with which to degrade 100-plus years of study of the various genera, now lumped into Eriosyce. But, like so much of science, it all becomes an interesting argument. The arguments are the whole being and end-all of this thing we call science.
Editorial: In the course of this disaster of covid-19, I was gratified that our scientist belief (I was a working scientist and a teacher of science before retiring) in the support of the studying of fundamental phenomena was proven well-founded. For about 40 years, people had studied various aspects of RNA and DNA viruses. No reason, except their fundamental interest, with a back-door though that maybe this might pan out when something awful might happen. The awful happened. But the RNA people were ready to use their 40 years of pure study of interesting phenomena. In the space of a weekend, a possible vaccine formula based on those 40 years of pure science was devised. We are all benefitting from this inspiration. Our attention to fundamental research has allowed us to make a super-educated guess about the nature of a possible vaccine. Further experimentation proved the probable efficacy of that vaccine formula. Vaccine development in the past has taken years, maybe tens of years, maybe with no success, ever. But now, our attention to fundamental research has given us an instant vaccine, and probably has saved many millions (!) of lives.   (55/56)   

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