Biologist Carol Kaesuk Yoon explores the historical tension between
evolutionary biology and taxonomy. Carl Linnaeus struggled in the
eighteenth century to define species in light of their mutability while
still relying on intuitive, visual judgments. As taxonomy modernized, it
moved into labs, yielding results counterintuitive to humanity’s innate
predisposition to order the world. By conceding scientific authority to
taxonomists, Yoon argues, we’ve contributed to our own alienation from
nature.