Book of the Week: Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider
It’s Monday and welcome to a new Butterflies & Aliens Book of the Week!
I love to read a variety of books across genres, fiction and nonfiction, and my non-work reading is typically entwined with my mood and personal interests. Those who know me know that I love biological sciences and music, so when I came across Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider by Stephen B. Heard I felt like I hit the reading jackpot.
The book is nonfiction exploration of how scientific names function, the history of taxonomy, and a fresh and unique fusion of pop science with pop culture. With a lot of zest and enthusiasm, Stephen B. Heard recounts tales of epic scientific disses, the thrill of new discovery, and the honouring of literary and musical greats.
A quote from the book that resonates with me is:
“Taxonomists (and other scientists) are divided about whether celebrity naming is a good idea. Some would like to reserve eponymous naming for scientists, arguing that whatever the merits of their music, Beyoncé and David Bowie (for example) have no connection to biology, so their names have no place in scientific nomenclature. Others take a stronger version of this position, holding that pop-culture celebrities simply don't deserve the adulation they receive, no matter how that adulation might be expressed. To these people, modern society is already too obsessed with people who aren't heroes but are simply doing their jobs whether the job is hitting a baseball a long way, making funny jokes, or pretending to be a time-traveling cyborg assassin (Schwarzenegger in the movie The Terminator, for those who have forgotten). Those holding either of these views wouldn't suggest that scientists shouldn't be fans of Beyoncé or Ichiro-only that they should keep that fandom separate from their science. But why should they? Why must scientific names, or anything else in science, be de-personalized, serious, nothing more than functional? Why shouldn't scientists celebrate their passions-whatever those passions might be? Why can't Scaptia beyonceae show us that scientific names can be golden, sometimes, rather than gray?”
I love this paragraph for science but also for not understating the importance of art and entertainment, the importance of fandoms, and the importance of not taking oneself too seriously. This paragraph is why Stephen B. Heard is an author I would love to have dinner with sometime.
I highly recommend this delightful and educational read and hope that some of you might give it a try.
Happy Reading!
– Stacey
