To many people, Carolus Linnaeus is characterized as being the greatest symbol in Sweden as a naturalist scientist. He was a taxonomist, a botanist, a zoologist, an ecologist, he also worked in medicine and in natural history but his main passion was botany (Anderson 10). He became world famous and was named an important naturalist because of the system he developed and used to name and classify plants, animals, minerals, and even on occasion humans. People do not truly understand this man if they only look at and consider his accomplishments in botany. When people only consider Carl Linnaeus as a world famous botanist, they are eliminating very important aspects of his life. Carl Linnaeus was a “jack-of-all-trades” and here all of those trades will be covered and focused on (Koerner 14).
Without accurately knowing all of the accomplishments that Carl Linnaeus has made throughout his life, one is really missing out on all the great research and information that was conducted by him. His whole journey throughout life and contributions to this wonderful world began when Carl was only four years old. He was on a picnic adventure with family and some family friends and his father gathered oodles of wildflowers from around Lake Möckeln in Sweden, which is where they were picnicking. Ever since that day when Nils, Carl’s father, named each of the wildflowers that he had picked to his guests, Carl was determined to learn the names of every plant in and around his hometown (Anderson 9). By the time that young, dedicated Carl became a college student, he had already learned every single name of all the flowers in his home province of Småland and he was still not satisfied. He continued his search of finding and naming even mo...
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...t had been for Carl Linnaeus and his father, Nils, paving the way for all of his work. Carl Linnaeus was a great man that dedicated his life to helping science, but that botany was his passion so he was up to the challenge when he decided to reform the naming system that was used during his time. Do not underestimate all the great work that he contributed in all aspects of science and life in general.
Works Cited
Anderson, Margaret Jean. Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification. Springfield: Enslow, 1997.
Downs, Robert B. Landmarks in Science: Hippocrates to Carson. Littleton: Libraries Unlimited, 1982.
Koerner, Lisbet. Linnaeus: Nature and Nation. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1999.
Lidén, Magnus. “Linnaeus and the Animals.” Uppsala University, 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
Linné, C von. “Medical Plants and Linnaeus.” Uppsala University, 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
Lehner, Ernst, and Johanna Lehner. Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees. New York: Tudor. 1960
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born in Motier, Switzerland on May 28, 1807. Born the son of a Protestant pastor, Louis Agassiz was raised in a religious environment but clearly possessed a deep interest in natural history and science. “I spent most of the time I could spare…in hunting the neighboring woods and meadows for birds, insects, and land and fresh water shells” (Lurie 9). Throughout his childhood and adolescence, his curiosities about nature and its origins drove him to become a prominent figure in natural history, zoology, and ichthyology.
Stephen Jay Gould was an American scientist of many different studies, such as: paleontology, biology, and was a historian of science. Most of his career was spent teaching at Harvard University and working for the American Museum of Natural History. Gould also taught biology and evolution at New York University. His biggest contribution to the progress of evolutionary theory, was his book, Rocks of Ages.
Lack, Andrew, Proctor, Michael, Yeo, Peter. The Natural History of Pollination. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 1996.
Dandelions, known to the botanist as Taraxacum officinale, are classified in the Composite (Compositae) family of flowering plants. The genus name, Taraxacum is derived from the Persian word for "bitter herb," (Myer, 1994). Accompanying the golden ruse of the dandelion are the daisies, aster, sunflowers, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and many other wildflowers.
and opened doors for later scientists that were in his field of organic synthesis. He was a
Henry Thoreau, like Goethe before him, showed a lasting interest in science. (2) He belonged to the Boston Natural History Society from 1850 onwards, and read widely in the current scientific literature. Beyond this, Thoreau was intensely interested in the scientific puzzles suggested by his own rambles around Concord, Massachusetts. In the years following Walden’s publication he observed more systematically and tested his hypotheses more rigorously, and published one of the first scholarly discussions on forest succession. Some historians rate Thoreau as one of the founders of the modern science of ecology. (3)
Humans have long recognized that flowers are an indication of future fruits. Therefore it was vital for nomadic hunters to remember where in the wild they saw flowers. And further yet each type of flower produced a specific fruit. Thus fruits and flowers had something in common; the preference of one fruit meant the preference of a type of flower. Most often, as in modern times, the most healthy looking flower shows signs that it will produce quality fruit. The beauty of a flower told hunters that a nutritious fruits would ripen after the flowers bloomed. This concept explains how we have evolved toward preferring healthy looking flowers. But how does this explain the security of a plants reproduction? It is necessary to mention that plants not only produce fruits to stop herbivores from eating the plant, but in their own diabolic plan, plants found a new way to spread their seeds through fruits. Herbivores would eat the fruits an...
Angelo, Ray, ed. “Thoreau as Botanist” The Journal of Thoreau: Botanical Index. Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith Inc. 1984.
Charles Darwin has had the greatest influence on the world by proving the evolution of living things. Charles Darwin had first noticed the similarities of plants and animals when he took a five-year cruise on the H.M.S. Beagle, which was available to him through a friend from school. During the cruise Charles Darwin started becoming interested with the similarities between the plants and animals that were similar on different islands with similar climates, so he decided to study them more closely.
The video, “What Darwin Never Knew”, is a stunning time line that details the theory of evolution formed by Charles Darwin, and the recent advancements made that answers some of the questions he simply could not. Darwin 's theory explained why today there are 9,000 kinds of birds, 350,000 kinds of beetles, 28,000 kinds of fish, and at least 2 million kinds of living species and counting. Darwin figured out that all species are connected, and he also realized that species evolved and adapted, but he did not know how.
Gregor Mendel, born as Johann Mendel, is considered to be one of the most significant historic scientist of all time. He was an Austrian scientist and monk and is best known as the “Father of Modern Genetics.” He founded the science of genetics and discovered many things that dealt with heredity that still applies to our world today. He is remembered for paving the way for scientists and future generations to come. Unfortunately, Mendel’s work went unnoticed until 16 years after his death and 34 years after he published his research. Though Mendel lay covered in his grave, his work would eventually be uncovered. Although Mendel was not there to see it,
Charles Darwin began his scientific breakthroughs and upcoming theories when he began an expedition trip to the Galapagos Islands of South America. While studying there, he discovered that each island had its own type of plant and animal species. Although these plants and animals were similar in appearance, they had other characteristics that made them differ from one another and seem to not appear as similar. Darwin questioned why these plants and animals were on these islands and why they are different in ways.
Mendel seemed to enjoy his accomplishments privately as his work was discovered three decades later by scientists conducting agricultural research. The scientists were: Erich Tschermak, Hugo de Vries, and Carl Correns who all independently verified Mendel's work leading to the "age of genetics" where we gained even more knowledge on genes and even DNA. Nirenberg, n.d., a.d. Hugo Marie de Vries was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists who started studying hybridization. Through his studies, he was convinced that traits were inherited as independent components.
Lamarck worked Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and later at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle where he became a professor of zoology. In 1801, he published Système des Animaux sans Vertebres, a landmark in invertebrate taxonomy. It was him that originated the distinction between...