unusual species names

[Jan Bosselaers]

Dear Kate and all,

I guess you will enjoy this site as well:
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm Weehoo, those
chemists!

Regards,

Jan

>All,
>
>I've really enjoyed this discussioin of vernacular/common names and other
>related issues--takes me back to my youth when I was studying to be a
>marine biologist.
>
>With respect to unusual or "funny" scientific names, biologists are not
>alone. When I taught science reference, I became aware of a number of
>unusual names of chemical compounds reflecting the interests of their
>discoverers. I was particularly fond of the compounds associated with
>bohemic acid, such as marcellomycin, musettamycin, rudolphomycin,
>mimimycin, etc. See: J Nat Prod. 1980 Mar-Apr;43(2):242-58. for an
>overvivew of these compounds and
>http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/319/7215/972 for a broader
>discussion.  Then there are also the irrepressible geneticists and their
>names for genes -- couch potato, sonic hedgehog, etc.
>
>Kate McCain (former marine biologist)
>College of Information Science and Technology
>Drexel University
>

--
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Dr. Jan Bosselaers
"Dochterland", R. novarumlaan 2
B-2340 Beerse, Belgium               tel / fax 32-14-615896
home: dochterland at pandora.be  /  hortipes at dochterland.org
work: jbossela at janbe.jnj.com
web: http://www.dochterland.org/ or http://wyith.ch/home/dochterland.org/

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