Nature is unchangeable. The number of species is limited to around 23,000. It is only open how best to arrange it. The botanist Carl von Linné, born in 1707 in 1707, must have thought when he was about to artificially created the desired order. We owe him the binary nomenclature to name animal and plant species as well as the terms rich, class, order, genus and type. But also the long-outdated division of people into different breeds.
His ideas came up with resistance during his lifetime, especially at the French universal scholar of Georges-Louis de Buffon, who was also born in 1707 and was far ahead of his time. De Buffon was convinced that species have developed over a long period of time. He put up a pre -Darwinist theory of evolution. He always made sure not to be stamped as a heretic. He rejected an order that was artificially imposed on nature. Instead, he sought natural classification throughout his life.
The journalist Jason Roberts shows the parallel life and ideas of these two influential personalities in an entertaining and educational way, which could not have been different. A captivating book that takes readers into the world of natural research in the 18th century and stimulates thought about the order and development of life. Eszter Bolla
Jason Roberts
The discovery of all life
Carl von Linné, Georges-Louis de Buffon and the adventurous competition for researching nature in the 18th century
Heyne, 448 pages, € 26, –
ISBN 978-3-453-21857-4