Science/Technology: Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon. Biography: Dorothea Lange by Linda Gordon. Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.

THE WISDOM OF WHORES: It lifts the lid on the world of AIDS research and policy. I thought it was terrific. NAMING NATURE: A smart, thoughtful, incredibly engaging look at the science of taxonomy - all but forgotten in our rush to molecular biology and yet completely essential in trying to impose a sense of order on the craziness of life. Yoon has a gift for making nature beautiful and the scientists who study it both passionate and occasionally hilarious. A great read.

Yoon's final advice is compelling, for while everyone may not appreciate the subtleties of the Latin derivations of creature names, each person's umwelt will allow an appreciation of the environment. And that appreciation can lead to greater preservation.

Yoon's solution to the umwelt's disappearance and our resultant detachment is not to find common ground between science's ordering of life, and that which the individual experiences via his umwelt, but to embrace both. Instead of a new paradigm, we have the two that already exist. In conflict. But when it comes to the natural world, what lies between the clinical, disinterested nature of the lab, and the fawning, uncritical, and blanket appreciation of the nature lover? I say this not as someone with the answer, but instead as one who's long asked the question.

In this bracing and brilliant book, Yoon describes the long progress by which we have lost our sense of the natural order of the world, what she terms the “umwelt.’’ She laments that we have given over our sense of the observable world to scientists and their invisible calculations and eccentric, albeit accurate, evolutionary categories, by which birds are dinosaurs. This is a book about taxonomy, a field that might seem to promise a guaranteed snooze but which, in Yoon’s deft hands, delivers a thrill ride.

Yoon’s history of how and why we order the world is presented with admirable charm, concision and clarity. Her theories for how our dethroned umwelt continues to quietly rule modern life are fearlessly iconoclastic—witness her treatment of the much-lamented research that revealed how many logos toddlers can identify. It’s to be expected, says Yoon; we now do our foraging in supermarkets.

For about 150 years, we have known how species evolve. The emergence of life itself remains more obscure. But as Lane shows with clarity and vigor in “Life Ascending,” fascinating studies on the subject abound. A trained biochemist, Lane smoothly pulls in evidence from genetics, proteomics (the study of proteins), paleontology and geophysics to show how the critical components and mechanisms of complex life — from DNA and photosynthesis to sex and vision — could have developed.

There’s a terrific article by Carol Kaesuk Yoon in the NY Times about research that shows that humans around the world tend to cluster the natural world in highly similar ways, even using similar-ish names.

excerpt from "Naming Nature: The Clash between Instinct and Science"

If the biblical Adam named earth's creatures, modern-day scientists control the franchise. Yet the rest of us, too, have an urge to name and classify living things—we just do it differently, to feel at home in the world. In Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science, evolutionary biologist Carol Kaesuk Yoon makes the case for looking, touching, listening, making our own imperfect sense of the marvels that surround us. Like Darwin, Yoon can find the beauty in a barnacle, and her book—lush with biology, biography, and folklore—is a sensuous delight to read.

The author takes a look at the history of taxonomy and how it has shaped our view of nature. She then goes on to describe what is called "umwelt" or how a species perceives the world. Yoon then describes how this umwelt and modern taxonomy are in conflict and how this conflict can be resolved.