How the internet has changed our knowledge of nature
In the bygone era of BI (AKA Before the Internet), most of our knowledge of nature and animals came from textbooks, TV and newspaper news, books written by specialists in their field and documentaries shown on TV or at the movies. If you went to your local library it would be a crap shoot if you got up to date information on the subject you were trying to research. At that time we were unaware of the information that was outdated.
Just a few months ago I wrote on this blog about how I had to do a research project on the ancient history of the horse and found out that the horse originated on the North American continent and not in Asia as was the old information that many people were taught. In fact prior to the 1970's most horse books stated the erroneous fact of horses originally coming from Asia or the middle East. I have one of those books in my back room. In fact the discovery of the horse developing in North America was in the 1920's and then further evidence was found in the 1950's. Apparently that knowledge was not widely known, until the internet came along.
Instead of waiting until a book is published with new scientific evidence, the information is now released via the internet. The information is fast and detailed. Scientists now collaborate in real time over vast remote areas. Our understanding of nature and its history are now greatly improved.
