What's In A Name

I put this up-- not because I wish to point out what a great scientist Feynman was (which, of course, he was)-- but because he says something in this interview that I think (*gasp*) he got wrong.  Not entirely wrong--just, I think he never thought about it further, beyond it's being something he learned from his father, whom he admired tremendously.

Feynman was an amazing scientist-- a scientist in the real sense of the word.  A person who wanted to *know*, know about everything.  He was interested in...everything in the world, really.  If you've never read Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, I encourage you to pick it up--it's a series of great stories about an insatiable curiosity and a guy who loved a good joke, among other things.

One of my favorite bits from Surely You Must Be Joking... was the story he tells about the time he decided to switch fields for a summer--from physics to biology.

I began to read the paper.  It kept talking about extensors and flexors, the gastrocnemius muscle, and so on.  This and that muscle were named, but I hadn't the foggiest idea of where they were located in relation to the nerves or to the cat.  So I went to the librarian in the biology section and asked her if she could find me a map of the cat.  

     "A map of the cat, sir?" she asked, horrified. "You mean a zoological chart!""  From then on there were rumors about some dumb biology graduate student who was looking for a "map of the cat."

 When it came time for me to give my talk on the subject, I started off by drawing an outline of the cat and began to name the various muscles.  The other students in the  class interrupt me:  "We know all that!"

 "Oh," I say, "you do?  Then no wonder I can catch up with you so fast  after you've had four years of biology."  They had wasted all their time memorizing stuf like that, when it could be looked up in fifteen minutes.             (Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, pp. 58-9)

If you've already watched the video up above, maybe you noticed the part around the 4:00 mark, where he talks about other kids knowing the name of a bird ("that's a brown-throated warbler!") and how they ribbed him a little for not knowing.  He went home and asked his dad why he hadn't taught him that--and his father tells him that knowing the name of something isn't really knowledge.   That stayed with him, apparently.  The attitude that it doesn't matter whether you know the 'right' name of something is what makes the Map of the Cat story funny.  And, in many ways, he's right.  His dad was right.

Except in one way.  One kind of name really does convey important information-- a taxonomic binomial.  The two-part naming system invented by Linneaus.  If you know that name, you know what else the organism is related to.  You have an idea, albeit a rough one, of where that organism fits into the Big Bushy Tree of Life.  And that's not a piece of knowledge to toss away.

Other than that-- Feynman's a hoot:-)

Book Review-- The Holes in Your Nose

I promise I will put up another origami post very soon, but in the meantime--a book review!  This book was originally written in Japanese, but it's also available in English translation.  Now that I think about it, I think my sister discovered this book and gave it to us....  anyway, it's a favorite in our house.  It's actually part of a series of books called the "My Body Science Series", by Genichiro Yagyu.  The Holes in Your Nose is very straightforwardly written, which has the effect of making it in places side-splitting funny.  The author matter-of-factly compares the shapes of people's nose holes, what noses are for and how they work, how boogers form, that gorillas eat their boogers.... and all in a rather innocent voice that makes it appealing and not as though the writer were trying to hard for a gross-out effect.   The illustrations are as simple and appealing as the writing style.

My middle son (that's him up there in the header photo in the glasses) *loves* this book--it really appeals to his earthy, physical sense of humor.  His older brother (also up there in the header photo), on the other hand, is my Science Guy, so he actually likes all the information and the scattered invitations to the reader to try things with his own nose.  Little Sister *shouts* with laughter when Mommy does the gorilla's voice saying he's going to let his boogers dry then pick them off and eat them:).

It's published by Kane/Miller Book Publishers, and it's available from Amazon (click the link above).  It was published in the US quite a while back, so your library may have it (worth checking anyway, if you like to preview before buying books).

Enjoy!  Mata Asobou, ne!