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 ...

Carl Linnaeus’ parents wanted their son to enter the priesthood, a noble profession in the 18th Century. Linnaeus, like many children, rebuffed his parent’s desires and followed his own interests. In ...

Anyone who thinks that a certain level of scientific genius imparts dignity might want to take a look at this incident in the life of Carl Linnaeus. He was a polymath, the father of modern biology, ...

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.

Carl Linnaeus's use of erotic language to describe plants ultimately helped him to recruit a global network of specimen collectors. In August 1749, Pehr Kalm, a medical student from Finland, travelled ...