Taxonomy in the popular media

[Frederick J. Peabody]

The movie "Medicine Man" comes to mind.

Frederick J. Peabody
Associate Professor of Botany
University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD  57069  USA
fpeabody at sundance.usd.edu

On Mon, 13 Jan 1997, aj49 wrote:

> To those interested,
>
> It occurs to me that there are at least a few, and probably many examples of
> taxonomy taking a central role in popular television and movies.  For
> example, a recent episode of X-Files hinged on the identity of a fungus
> associated with mysterious deaths.  Or in the movie called the Silence of
> the Lambs, in which the mystery was solved partly on the basis of the
> identification of a moth, and the consequent biological information that the
> detectives got based on the correct identification.  Maybe this has been
> obvious to others, but it occurred to me for the first time that such shows
> are great tools for explaining to one's inlaws or whoever the importance of
> the seemingly esoteric science called taxonomy.  Movies and TV are closer to
> home for most people than crop production, ecology and so-forth.  Do some of
> you have other good examples of taxonomy in movies and TV?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andy Jensen
>