Today's shopping excursion took me past the Brick Pits at Homebush Bay, home of the famous Green & Golden Bell Frog. Shopping for archery supplies, I was once again reminded of how much technology changes the daily substance of life. Previously, fletchings were rooster feathers hand made, then mass produced, cut and died into bright sports team suitable colours. Now the fletchings are plastic. Hard wearing yet flexible, gaudily rainbow plastic. I particularly like the day glo ones, and those that fluoresce under UV light. Picked up a few dozen to test a concept, and don't mind the thought of another drive out there once the design is set.
Individually fletchings were so cheap that I, from my cashless inner city world had to purchase a few extra to justify the use of the Eftpos machine. Probably a serendipitous embarassment though, as prototypes of any object have a habit of going badly awry on a bad day.
It got me to thinking though, that the underlying theory of archery had remained stable for a very long time. It's a science of materials as much as the physics of flight. A long time ago I worked in a team of experienced zoologists and botanists. Laboratory and field work were closely intertwined, hence theory and practice were also not divorced from each other. It's worth remembering that the 'old fashioned zoologists' whose stock in trade is painstaking observation have a lot to contribute to the most cutting edge research. Catching evolution in the act requires plenty of that, as much as it requires high throughput DNA analysis.
