In Naming Nature, science journalist Carol Kaesuk Yoon takes readers on a playful tour through the history of taxonomy, from the time of Carl Linnaeus to the present. In recounting the field's development, she discovers that changes in the practice of taxonomy seem to correlate with society's growing disconnection from nature. At stake is the importance, or lack of importance, scientists grant to the human umwelt--the world as we perceive it. According to Yoon, just as taxonomists have moved away from a reliance on subjective judgments in their classification of life (and toward a reliance on numerical and evolutionary criteria), so too has the public begun to engage less with the natural world. "We have unwittingly traded a facility with living things for a savantlike brand expertise, exchanging the language of the living world--the names of real plants and real animals--for a vocabulary of Tony the Tigers and Geico geckos," Yoon describes.

It goes without saying that the history of taxonomy isn't necessarily the most fascinating of subjects, but Yoon's irreverent witticisms, gossipy asides, and pop culture references--Pokémon makes an appearance--go far in spicing up what otherwise is a dry subject. Most critically, Yoon makes a persuasive case for the way that naming the living world can bring people closer to it. "As marketers well know, once you notice a brand, learn its name, its shape, its meaning, you begin to see it everywhere," she writes. "Once you start noticing organisms, once you have a name for particular beasts, birds, and flowers, you begin to see the shape, the natural order of living things. You will begin to notice life where it is, all around you. It's not too late."