Naming Names

Naming Names

Constant Wonder

  • Apr 14, 2020 6:00 pm
  • 51:01 mins
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What's In a Name?  Guest: Stephen B. Heard, Professor, Biology, University of New Brunswick, and author, “Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider: How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels” From Spongiforma Squarepantsii to Heteropoda davidbowie, scientists sometimes have a bit of fun naming the creatures they discover. But some researchers have tried to embarrass their rivals by incorporating insults into naming conventions. There's a story behind every name, and we'll get a few of the good ones. Not All Fun and Names (But Quite a Bit More Than You'd Think) Guest: Gareth Williams, Astronomer, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Secretary, International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature  Did you know that there’s a committee that gets together just to name things we discover in space? Asteroids like one named after David Bowie, another after Jimi Hendrix, and another named after a cat itself named after Mr. Spock. Just a few of the thousands of creatively named things in space. Family Names Guest: Sam Payne, host, "The Apple Seed," BYUradio Sam Payne shares the stories behind many family names around the world and what they mean.