Text by Lauri Laanisto
In a tiny country like Estonia scientists are probably more concious about progeny than in more populated places where the flow of potential students is much more steady. So, most of Estonian scientists are involved in various activities promoting science in general and their specific discipline more narrowly.
My niche in this field, in addition to blogging, is translating. I´m trying to make science more accessible for young people like I was when growing up, or people who do not speak English.
And just today my latest translation hit the already overloaded shelves of bookstores. It´s Ilkka Hanski´s posthumously published “scientific testament” called “Messages from Islands” (University of Chicago Press 2016). In Estonian (which is the second language after Finnish – naturally – it has been translated into) it is called “Sõnumeid saartelt”. Here is the cover:
Ilkka Hanski collaborated with members of EcolChange, and the concept of extinction debt (link to Helm, Hanski and Pärtel 2005 in EcolLetters) is quite thouroughly discussed also in this book.
