Robyn Williams: Classification of animals and plants is essential for biological science to work. The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus adopted the use of binomial names. He will be 300 on the 23rd May ...

A gardener friend of ours used to object to calling a plant by its Latin name. She heard it as pretense and obfuscation. But after the sage incident, she conceded that there was some point to it.

God, the Bible tells us, gave Adam the job of naming the animals. But it was Carl Linnaeus who figured out a good way to do it. Linnaeus, also known as Carolus Linnaeus or Carol von Linne, was the ...