Naming Nature The Clash Between Instinct And Science

In this entertaining and insightful book, "New York Times" science writer Yoon sets out to document the progression of the scientific quest to order and name the entire living worldthe whole squawking, scuttling, blooming, twining, leafy, furry, green and wondrous mess of it from Linnaeus to present-day taxonomists. But her initial assumption of science as the ultimate authority is sideswiped by her growing interest in "umwelt", how animals perceive the world in a way idiosyncratic to each species, fueled by its particular sensory and cognitive powers and limited by its deficits. According to Yoon, Linnaeus was an "umwelt" prodigy, but as taxonomists began to abandon the senses and use microscopic evidence and DNA to trace evolutionary relations, nonscientists' gave up their brain-given right (and tendency) to order the living world, with the devastating result of becoming indifferent to the current mass extinctions. Yoon's invitation for laypeople to reclaim their "umwelt", to take one step closer to the living world and accept as valid the wondrous variety in the ordering of life, is optimistic, exhilarating and revolutionary.