biology

Martin Moynihan (biologist)

Martin Moynihan (biologist) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Martin Moynihan (biologist) rather than just read about it. In short: Martin Humphrey Moynihan (5 February 1928 – 3 December 1996) was a behavioral evolutionary biologist and ornithologist who studied under Ernst Mayr and Niko Tinbergen, and was a contemporary of Desmond Morris. He was the founding director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama.

Key takeaways

Martin Moynihan (biologist) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Martin Moynihan (biologist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Martin Moynihan (biologist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Martin Humphrey Moynihan (5 February 1928 – 3 December 1996) was a behavioral evolutionary biologist and ornithologist who studied under Ernst Mayr and Niko Tinbergen, and was a contemporary of Desmond Morris. He was the founding director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. His early research was mainly on seagulls. Later work included the octopus, and Terence McKenna quotes Moynihan in his book Food of the Gods as saying, with respect to the octopus' ability to change its body's shape, texture and color, "Like the octopi, our destiny is to become what we think, to have our thoughts become our bodies and our bodies become our thoughts." He was married to Olga F. Linares, a Panamanian-American anthropologist and STRI senior research scientist. Moynihan died in Albi, France in 1996 of lung cancer, aged 68.

References

Further reading Leigh, Egbert Giles (1999). Tropical Forest Ecology : A View from Barro Colorado Island. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509602-6. OCLC 36768102. Royte, Elizabeth (2001). The Tapir's Morning Bath: Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest and the Scientists Who are Trying to Solve Them (1st Mariner Books ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-97997-6. OCLC 46884151.

External links

Martin H. Moynihan Papers, 1952–1996 from the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martin Moynihan (biologist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martin Moynihan (biologist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Martin Moynihan (biologist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Martin Moynihan (biologist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Martin Moynihan (biologist)

In research: Martin Moynihan (biologist) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Martin Moynihan (biologist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Martin Moynihan (biologist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century American zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martin Moynihan (biologist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Martin Moynihan (biologist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Martin Moynihan (biologist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Martin Moynihan (biologist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Martin Moynihan (biologist) in simple terms?

Why does Martin Moynihan (biologist) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Martin Moynihan (biologist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Martin Moynihan (biologist).