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> Naming species forms the foundation of biology No, it really doesn't. It really, really doesn't. People study biology all the time and get useful levels of s
by vacri 9y ago
> Naming species forms the foundation of biology
No, it really doesn't. It really, really doesn't. People study biology all the time and get useful levels of skill without ever being aware of species classification. Taxonomy is a part of biology, but it's not a foundation of it. If you want to study physics, you're not going to get very far without 'distance' or 'time', but you can learn heaps of useful biology without ever uttering a latin phrase.
We, as humans, have a long history of studying biology with little in the way of taxonomy: hunting and farming. The quoted bit is an annoying premise for the article, because the whole thing is written as if biology itself is potentially going to crumble, just to add a bit of needless drama.
- jhbadger 9y agoI've moved from environmental biology to biomedical biology in my career. Certainly biomedical types don't care much about classification. But that's because they traditionally only deal with humans, rats, monkeys and mice. But classification really matters once you get beyond that. Hell, biomedical science is having a crash course in classification due to the current interest in the microbiome. It really matters if a bacterium is a Firmicute or a Bacteroidetes.