Experiments can be a respectful way of listening to other species.

Evidence

Because we can’t speak the same language, our work as scientists is to piece the story together as best we can. We can’t ask the salmon directly what they need, so we ask them with experiments and listen carefully to their answers. … We measure and record and analyze in ways that might seem lifeless but to us are the conduits to understanding the inscrutable lives of species not our own. Doing science with awe and humility is a powerful act of reciprocity with the more-than-human world. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 922

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the listening/observation-as-method thread: experiments as the scientist’s language for interviewing other beings, parallel to ch30 plants communicating through embodied action. — connects to: Observing other species’ lives can recover a forgotten common language — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 36; Listening to nature’s nonverbal signals is as rational as listening to people — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 661; Field science can function as a path to cross-species kinship. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 923 (+1 more)
• SEED: Directly supports the integrative polyad paper — a reusable passage on experiment-as-conversation (builds on ch37 ‘experiments are a form of conversation’).

Broader Connections

• Experiments are a form of conversation, not discovery #expands (0.82) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 552
• Field science can function as a path to cross-species kinship. #expands (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 923
• Observing other species’ lives can recover a forgotten common language #exemplifies (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 36
• Listening to nature’s nonverbal signals is as rational as listening to people #qualifies (0.72) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 661