Scientists Go Renaming Things with Cultural Value Again
Drosophila melanogaster, a fly that science students and genetic researchers the world over have messed with for decades, may be getting a name change. Turns out the genus Drosophila is more diverse than scientists previously thought and might need to be split.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature voted against sparing the genus’ most famous member from renaming, despite protests from scientists. Nature has a great quote:
“Oh my God,” says Therese Markow, a geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, who was reached in the Sonoran Desert, where she was collecting fruitflies. Markow, who is director of the university’s Drosophila Species Stock Center, added that extensive name changes could “wreak havoc” in the Drosophila literature and databases.
Scientific considerations aside, this reminded me of the International Astronomical Union taking away Pluto’s planetary status, something that caused my sister and her classmates to ask, “WHY did they do that?”
The answer is that scientists absolutely want to be accurate, even when doing so causes confusion in their own ranks and in the public.