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An engaging history of the surprising, poignant, and occasionally
scandalous stories behind scientific names and their cultural
significance, "More fun than you've ever had with taxonomy in your
whole entire life!" (Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series
and PhD in Quantitative Behavioral Ecology) 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
Beyonce'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.
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