Naming nature : the clash between instinct and science /
Carol Kaesuk Yoon.
- 1st ed.
- New York : W.W. Norton, c2009.
- viii, 344 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-317) and index.
The strange case of the fish that wasn't -- The little oracle -- Miracle in a barnacle -- What rock bottom looks like -- A surprise in the Tower of Babel -- The Umwelt among babies and the brain-damaged -- Wog's legacy -- Taxonomy by the numbers -- Better taxonomy through chemistry -- The death of the fish -- This strange station -- Beyond science.
This surprising, untold story about the poetic and deeply human (cognitive) capacity to name the natural world illuminates science's limitations and the urgency of staying connected to the natural world by using familiar, rather than scientific, names.