Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider
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How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels
Stephen B. Heard; With Illustrations by Emily S. Damstra
Price: $28.00
Ever since Carl Linnaeus’s binomial system of scientific names was adopted in the eighteenth century, scientists have been eponymously naming organisms in ways that both honor and vilify their namesakes. This charming, informative, and accessible history examines the fascinating stories behind taxonomic nomenclature, from Linnaeus himself naming a small and unpleasant weed after a rival botanist to the recent influx of scientific names based on pop-culture icons—including David Bowie’s spider, Frank Zappa’s jellyfish, and Beyoncé’s fly.
Exploring the naming process as an opportunity for scientists to express themselves in creative ways, Stephen B. Heard’s fresh approach shows how scientific names function as a window into both the passions and foibles of the scientific community and as a more general indicator of the ways in which humans relate to, and impose order on, the natural world.
"Stephen Heard, one of our great science storytellers, brings his passion, curiosity and deep knowledge of biodiversity to sharing insights about our world and how it came to be. In his hands, species names become a window into a much larger world of scientific discovery and the workings of human nature. His gentle, yet passionate prose makes this a book to savor."—Neil Shubin, paleontologist and author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
Publication Date: March 17, 2020
25 b/w illus.