LINNEAUS

The man who gave the world a system for classifying all living things was Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus. His birth 300 years ago (May 23, 1707; died 1778) is being celebrated in his home country here and across the world.

His classification system is still in use today. He named and catalogued (in Latin) all living things - plants and animals which includes human beings. He first divided everything into two large groups called Kingdoms then (using the sexual characteristics of the plant or animal) he sub-divided each group into secondary sub-groups (using other similar features) then sub-divided again...and again..and again.

While botanists and zoologists use all the sub-group labels as tools of the trade it is the last 2 categories, namely, genus and species, that are more familiar.

This system of 'binary nomenclature' i.e. '2 names', occurs in many languages and goes back a long time but as The Linnean Society of London (England) here states "His Systema Naturae 10th edition, volume 1(1758), was accepted by international agreement as the official starting point for zoological nomenclature. Scientific names published before then had no validity unless adopted by Linnaeus or by later authors. This conferred a high scientific importance on the specimens used by Linnaeus for their preparation, many of which are in his personal collections now treasured by the Linnean Society."

The common purple rhododendron or 'rhoddy' Rhododendron ponticum is an example where a one-word name, Rhododendron is assigned to the genus and a second descriptive name ponticum is assigned to the species (not capitalized).



Mankind can be classified, biologically, to include an early form of man: Homo (for human) and erectus (upright) and our species today is classified as Homo sapiens (wise or rational). Then there is Claude Levi-Strauss putting forth the idea of Homo faber (man the fabricator or tool maker). Someone else coined the category Homo ludens (man the player) of which there is that well-known sub-species Homo ludens electronicus.


Micro-biological organisms can be classified, for example:

(a) A staph infection is caused by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (yellow or golden) or Staphylococcus albus (white) bacteria found in boils, pimples, styes (an eye infection), or septicemia.

It seems the old wive's tale of rubbing a gold ring on the stye is still around. Is this something to do with gold on gold?


(b) MRSA is simply Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (shown right). Methicillin is a type of antiboiotic.

(c) Strep throat takes its name from the bacteria Streptococcus.

(d) E. coli [pronounced ee-coal-eye] is the bacteria that causes diarrhea, often found in contaminated water. It is short for Escherichia coli.

Image credits: Linnaeus portrait - The Swedish Linnaeus Society here
Staph aureus - CDC/Janice Carr/Jeff Hageman, M.H.S