Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science

by Carol Kaesuk Yoon

Overview

Finalist for the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology. “A lively blend of popular scientific history and cultural criticism.”—New York Times Book Review

Biologist Carol Kaesuk Yoon explores the historical tension between evolutionary biology and taxonomy. Carl Linnaeus struggled in the eighteenth century to define species in light of their mutability while still relying on intuitive, visual judgments. As taxonomy modernized, it moved into labs, yielding results counterintuitive to humanity’s innate predisposition to order the world. By conceding scientific authority to taxonomists, Yoon argues, we’ve contributed to our own alienation from nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393338713
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/02/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	8.48(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Carol Kaesuk Yoon received her Ph.D. PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University and has been writing about biology for The New York Times since 1992. Her articles have also appeared in Science, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Dr. Yoon has taught writing as a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University’s John S. Knight Writing Program, working with professors to help teach critical thinking in biology classes. She has also served as a science education consultant to Microsoft. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Table of Contents

1 The Strange Case of the Fish That Wasn't 3

The Search for the Natural Order Begins

2 The Little Oracle 25

3 Miracle in a Barnacle 53

4 What Rock Bottom Looks Like 80

A Vision Illuminated

5 A Surprise in the Tower of Babel 117

6 The Umwelt Among Babies and the Brain-Damaged 146

7 Wog's Legacy 171

A Science is Born

8 Taxonomy by the Numbers 191

9 Better Taxonomy Through Chemistry 215

10 The Death of the Fish 239

A Vision Reclaimed

11 This Strange Station 271

12 Beyond Science 286

Notes 301

Acknowledgments 319

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

"A sensuous delight to read."

The Oprah Magazine O

"Bracing and brilliant."

Boston Globe

"Ingenious . . . compelling."

San Francisco Chronicle

"A beautiful riddle of a book."

Time Out New York

A beautiful riddle of a book.-- "Time Out New York"

A sensuous delight to read.-- "O, The Oprah Magazine"

Bracing and brilliant.-- "Boston Globe"

Impossible to put down.-- "Booklist"

Ingenious . . . compelling.-- "San Francisco Chronicle"

Starred Review: Optimistic, exhilarating, and revolutionary.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Starred Review: Superb.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

From the Publisher

"Impossible to put down."

Booklist

"Evolutionary biologist Carol Kaesuk Yoon makes the case for looking, touching, listening, making our own imperfect sense of the marvels that surround us. Like Darwin, Yoon can find the beauty in a barnacle, and her book—lush with biology, biography, and folklore—is a sensuous delight to read."

O Magazine - Cathleen Medwick