WEBVTT

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I want you to imagine something for a second.

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Okay. Imagine you have this massive, beautifully

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organized personal library. Oh, I'd love that.

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Right. And you spent literally years carefully

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categorizing every single book in there. Just

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meticulously sorting them. Exactly. You have

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a system that makes perfect sense. It's like

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organized by genre, then by subject, maybe even

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by the author's nationality. Something that works

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perfectly for the way you think. Yeah. And everyone

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who visits your house knows exactly how to find

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what they're looking for. It has become the standard.

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It just works. Right. But then an international

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committee of librarians suddenly knocks on your

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door and announces that actually the rules have

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changed. Oh, no. Yes. You are now required to

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reorganize your entire collection based strictly

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on the exact chronological publication date of

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the books. That sounds like an absolute nightmare.

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It gets worse. Not only that, but you have to

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completely rename all your sections from scratch.

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You're basically throwing out the system that

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was already working perfectly well simply to

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satisfy a new universal standard. I mean, the

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sheer amount of busy work that would require

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is staggering. The confusion it would cause for

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anyone trying to find anything in your library

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would be endless. Exactly. Any reasonable person

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would push back and ask why a perfectly functional

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system needs to be destroyed just to satisfy

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a rigid new technicality. And that feeling of

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intense frustration, that massive administrative

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upheaval is exactly what happened to the global

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scientific community. Yeah. But on a much larger

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scale. Totally. Only we aren't talking about

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books on a shelf here. We are talking about the

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entire world of botanical nomenclature. The official

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naming of plants. Welcome to today's deep dive.

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We're looking at a fascinating set of notes and

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a Wikipedia article detailing a historical quirk

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of biological classification known as the Q Rule.

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That's a really wild piece of scientific history.

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It really is. Yeah. Our mission today is to explore

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how this seemingly obscure scientific naming

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convention sparked literally a century. of absolute

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chaos in the botanical world. Okay, let's unpack

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this. What exactly was the Q rule? So, to understand

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the Q rule, we have to look at how taxonomists

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handle the transfer of plant species before the

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modern era. Right, because plants get moved around

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a lot. Exactly. As anyone familiar with taxonomy

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knows, plants are constantly being reclassified

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as our understanding of them evolves. So a botanist

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might realize that a specific plant actually

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belongs in an entirely different genus than originally

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thought. And usually there's a strict rule for

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that, right? The standard rule of priority dictates

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that the oldest published name is the one that

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must be used. But the Q rule, which was heavily

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utilized up until about 1906, was a historical

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mechanism that offered a remarkably flexible

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workaround to that strict chronological priority.

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So instead of being chained to whatever name

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was published first, regardless of the context,

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the Q rule gave scientists a different option

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when moving a plant to a new genus. How did that

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mechanism actually function in practice? Under

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the Q rule, if you transferred a plant species

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to a new genus, you were under absolutely no

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obligation to keep its original specific epithet.

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The specific epithet being the second part of

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its scientific name. Right, exactly. You could

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carry the old species name over if you wanted

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to, but you were completely free to coin a brand

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new specific name for it in the new genus. Wow.

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And the crucial part of the mechanism was that

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the priority of this new name simply started

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ticking from the exact moment the species was

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transferred. The historical baggage of its older

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name was essentially wiped clean in the new genus.

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That seems like a massive loophole. If I moved

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a plant into a new genus, I could just ignore

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its entire naming history and christen it with

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whatever new specific epithet I felt was appropriate.

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And the scientific community would just accept

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my new name as the official one. What was the

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driving philosophy behind giving individual scientists

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that much leeway? The underlying philosophy prioritized

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authority and stability over strict pedantic

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chronology. Make it practical. Precisely. The

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effect of the Q rule was basically this. The

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nomenclature used by an established monographer

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or published in a major scientific work should

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be adopted by the community. It placed a tremendous

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amount of trust in the experts in the room. Right.

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If a major established botanist wrote a definitive

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book on a group of plants and used a specific

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set of names, the Q rule validated their choices.

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It circumvented the need to dig through hundreds

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of years of obscure, forgotten literature. just

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to prove someone else technically named it first.

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It was a system built on practical consensus.

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If everyone is already using a name established

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by a leading expert, it makes perfect sense to

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just keep using it. And the ultimate manifestation

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of this philosophy was the index cuensis, right?

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Oh, absolutely. The index cuensis is a perfect

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illustration of how deeply entrenched this rule

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was. This was a massive, incredibly ambitious

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publication with the goal of listing all the

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botanical names for seed plants in the entire

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world. At both the species and genus ranks. Yes.

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And we have to remember, the physical undertaking

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of compiling a comprehensive list of global flora

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before the advent of computers cannot be overstated.

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It was monumental. Just indexing the entire planet's

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seed plants by hand. Right. Because of its massive

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scope, the indexed cuensis became an unshakable

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authority in the botanical world, and this monumental

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publication used the flexible cue rule to organize

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its vast catalogs right up until its supplement,

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the Visti, was published in 1913. Which, according

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to the sources, was prepared between 1906 and

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1910. Correct. Here's where it gets really interesting.

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Because you don't get a consensus like that without

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pushback. Not in science, you don't. Definitely

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not. Not everyone agreed that trusting the subjective

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authority of major publications over strict objective

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rules was a good thing. And this brings us to

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an incredible historical clash between two prominent

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botanists. The 1877 debate. Yes, we have a print

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discussion from 1877 playing out in the Act—

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This debate is fascinating because it is a clash

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of fundamental scientific worldviews. De Kindol

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was a fierce advocate for strict priority. He

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was the rule follower. Very much so. His perspective

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was that scientific nomenclature needed to be

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governed by universal laws applied without exception.

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He argued that relying on the subjective judgment

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of established experts was a slippery slope.

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I mean, who gets to decide which botanist is

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an authority? Exactly. Who decides which publication

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is major enough to warrant adopting its names?

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DeCando believed that the only way to prevent

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bias and confusion was to adhere strictly to

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chronological priority. So oldest name wins no

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matter what. Right. If an older name existed

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for a plant, even if it was published in a different

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genus by a lesser known author, that older specific

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epithet had to be used. DeCandle basically wanted

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to remove human subjectivity from the equation

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entirely. He wanted a cold, hard chronological

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standard. But Tremen represents the pragmatist

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defense of the Q rule. Yes. Tremen looked at

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DeCandle's vision of constantly updating names

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based on chronological technicalities and thought

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it was completely absurd to de - destabilize

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perfectly well -accepted plant names. He was

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probably looking at the massive administrative

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headache it would cause. Oh, absolutely. Tryman's

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frustration is palpable in the historical record.

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He couldn't fathom why the scientific community

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would intentionally break a working system. Do

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we have his exact words on that? We do. In his

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1877 response in the Journal of Botany, he articulated

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the core defense of the Q rule perfectly. He

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wrote, Probably all botanists are agreed that

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it is very desirable to retain, when possible,

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old specific names, but some of the best authors

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do not certainly consider themselves bound by

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any generally accepted rule in this matter. Still

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less will they be inclined to allow that a writer

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is at liberty, as M .D .T. Kendall thinks, to

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reject the specific appellations made by an author

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whose genera are accepted, in favor of older

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ones in other genera. He really didn't mince

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words. No, he didn't. He concluded his argument

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by stating that allowing authors to reject accepted

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names just to satisfy a chronological rule is

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to needlessly create, in each case, another synonym.

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To needlessly create another synonym. That phrase

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perfectly captures the administrative dread of

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the time. To try and put Truman's frustration

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into modern terms for you, think about using

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your favorite app on your phone. Oh, this is

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a great comparison. The interface is great. you

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know where all the buttons are it's intuitive

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and millions of people use it every day without

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issue then the developers push a mandatory update

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that completely changes the layout moves all

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your favorite features and makes the app incredibly

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confusing to navigate Everyone hates when that

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happens. Right. And when you read the patch notes,

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the developers simply state that they updated

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the interface to conform to a new global coding

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standard. You don't care about their global coding

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standards. You just want the app to work the

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way it always did. Exactly. That is exactly how

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Treiman and the supporters of the Q rule felt.

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They had names that worked, names that the entire

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scientific community recognized, and they saw

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no value in breaking the system just to satisfy

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a strict chronological technicality. But the

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debate over these two philosophies, de Candolle's

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strict universal laws versus Tryman's practical

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stability, raged on for decades. It split the

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botanical community down the middle. It did.

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But a discipline cannot function indefinitely

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with competing sets of foundational rules. Eventually,

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the need for global standardization forced the

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issue. Which brings us to a major turning point

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in 1905 at the International Botanical Congress

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held in Vienna. Picture the scene in Vienna at

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the turn of the 20th century. You have scientists

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and delegates traveling from all over the world

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gathering in these grand halls to finally hash

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out the laws of plant naming. The stakes were

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incredibly high. Very high, because whatever

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they decided would permanently alter the massive

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catalogs of botanical knowledge that had been

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built up over centuries. The culmination of that

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gathering in Vienna was the publication of a

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landmark document in 1906 bearing the imposing

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title. Quite the mouthful. Definitely. But the

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significance of this document is that it was

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the very first botanical code of nomenclature

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that explicitly declared itself to be binding.

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So no more optional rules. Right. It moved the

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discipline past the era of relying on the mere

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suggestions of influential authors. This was

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now international scientific law. And under this

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new binding international law, the Q rule was

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officially outlawed. The flexibility to ignore

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older names when transferring a genus was gone.

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If we connect this to the bigger picture, the

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Vienna Congress represents a profound philosophical

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shift in the history of science. They took a

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side. The scientific community actively chose

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de Candolle's vision over Tryman's. They chose

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rigid, universal chronological rules over the

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flexible, practical authority of established

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experts. The Q rule was deemed a violation of

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what is now modern Article 11 .4 of the International

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Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.

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A very strict modern standard. Exactly. The consensus

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in Vienna was that a system based on objective

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dates and verifiable publications was ultimately

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more rigorous than a system based on reputation

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and convenience. Even if transitioning to that

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strict system meant enduring some short -term

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pain. Right. They thought the pain would be temporary.

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But the reality of that transition was anything

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but short -term pain. The incredible irony of

00:11:38.379 --> 00:11:40.720
this whole deep dive is that outlawing the Q

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rule was supposed to create order. It was supposed

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to fix everything. It was supposed to unify the

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botanical world under a single unshakable system.

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Instead, the sudden shift brought about massive

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sweeping upheaval in botanical nomenclature.

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It triggered an absolute avalanche of administrative

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chaos. The fallout was immediate and immense.

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Names that had been established under the Q rule

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names printed in countless textbooks, utilizing

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global agricultural trade written on herbarium

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specimens around the world, were suddenly rendered

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illegitimate. by the new code. Overnight. Pretty

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much. Scientists were thrust into the role of

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historical detectives, forced to scour archives

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and forgotten journals looking for older names

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that had been ignored for decades, just so they

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could resurrect them to comply with the new rules

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of priority. To really make this concrete for

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you and to show just how much of a headache this

00:12:31.820 --> 00:12:33.879
was for scientists on the ground, we have to

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look at a specific example from 1917 involving

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a botanist named Willis Jepson. This is a perfect

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example of the chaos. We are going to slow down

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and look at the exact puzzle Jepson was forced

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to solve. There was a plant that had been universally

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known for ages by the scientific name Brodia

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grandiflora. Let's map out that name. The genus

00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:59.539
was Brodia, and the specific epithet, or the

00:12:59.539 --> 00:13:02.559
species name, was Grandiflora. This combination

00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:04.620
had been established by an author named Smith.

00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.259
And under the Q rule, because it was published

00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:09.879
in a major work, everyone accepted it. Exactly.

00:13:10.059 --> 00:13:12.279
Brodie Grandiflora was the established standard.

00:13:12.500 --> 00:13:14.360
Everyone knew what plant you meant when you said

00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:17.080
it. But then the new strict rules from the Vienna

00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:19.779
Congress take effect. And someone digging through

00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:23.299
the archives realizes that back in 1806, a botanist

00:13:23.299 --> 00:13:25.980
named Salisbury had actually published a name

00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:29.000
for this exact same plant. But Salisbury had

00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.639
called it. Hookera coronaria. Completely different

00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:33.659
name. Right. And this is where the strict rules

00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:35.779
of priority clash with established practice.

00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.100
Under the new code, the scientific community

00:13:38.100 --> 00:13:40.240
agreed to keep using the accepted genus name,

00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.100
Brodiea. They rejected the older genus name,

00:13:43.220 --> 00:13:45.659
Hookera. Okay, so the genus is settled. However,

00:13:45.820 --> 00:13:48.379
because the Q rule was dead, Jepson could no

00:13:48.379 --> 00:13:51.500
longer simply ignore Salisbury's 1806 specific

00:13:51.500 --> 00:13:55.620
epithet, coronaria. Even though the genus Heuchero

00:13:55.620 --> 00:13:58.580
was discarded, the species name Coronaria was

00:13:58.580 --> 00:14:01.279
published earlier than Grandiflora. So Jepson

00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:04.080
is forced to build a Frankenstein name. That's

00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:06.039
exactly what it was. He has to take the accepted

00:14:06.039 --> 00:14:09.100
genus, Brodialia, and stitch it together with

00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:11.899
the older resurrected species name, Coronaria.

00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.779
He has to completely abandon the widely used

00:14:14.779 --> 00:14:18.500
Grandiflora. The result was that in 1917, Jepson

00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:20.799
had to formally publish a brand new combination,

00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:25.019
Brodialia coronaria. Jepson documented this required

00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:27.860
change in the literature, explicitly noting that

00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:30.519
he was creating a new combination solely to comply

00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:32.519
with the new rules. He had to do the paperwork

00:14:32.519 --> 00:14:34.460
to formally change a name that everyone already

00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:37.320
knew, just to satisfy the chronological technicality

00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:40.240
of an 1806 publication. Now multiply Jepson's

00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:42.539
administrative headache by thousands upon thousands

00:14:42.539 --> 00:14:44.860
of plant species all over the world. The scale

00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:46.820
of the resulting tangle of paperwork was just

00:14:46.820 --> 00:14:49.299
unprecedented. Botanists had actually tried to

00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:51.500
anticipate some of this chaos by creating lists

00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:53.480
of conserved names. What were those exactly?

00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:56.080
A conserved name was essentially a special exception.

00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:58.539
It was a name the community formally agreed to

00:14:58.539 --> 00:15:01.120
protect from changes in order to maintain some

00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.539
baseline stability in the literature. Like saying,

00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:05.919
okay, we know the rules say this should change,

00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:08.240
but let's just leave this one alone. Exactly.

00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:11.559
But the outlawing of the Q rule threw the entire

00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:14.789
system of conserved names into disarray. Because

00:15:14.789 --> 00:15:17.210
suddenly, the rules governing what needed to

00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:20.950
be conserved had changed entirely. Exactly. The

00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:24.129
confusion compounded over the decades. Many names

00:15:24.129 --> 00:15:25.909
that had previously been placed on the conserve

00:15:25.909 --> 00:15:28.750
list no longer needed that protection under the

00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:31.970
new rules. Conversely, thousands of names formed

00:15:31.970 --> 00:15:34.750
using the Q rule, which everyone had relied upon

00:15:34.750 --> 00:15:37.450
for generations, were suddenly illegitimate and

00:15:37.450 --> 00:15:40.279
needed urgent conservation. A total mess. It

00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:42.399
was. The administrative burden of tracking which

00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:45.039
names were conserved, which were rejected, and

00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.000
which rules applied to which historical texts

00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:50.600
became so convoluted that by 1959, the system

00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:53.320
reached a breaking point. Yes, the governing

00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:55.679
bodies of botanical nomenclature essentially

00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.860
had to declare administrative bankruptcy. The

00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:01.460
entire previous list of conserved and rejected

00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:05.259
names had to be completely scrapped. deeply reworked

00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:07.940
and replaced with a newly generated list. Think

00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:10.879
about that timeline for a second. 1959 is more

00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.580
than 50 years after the Vienna Congress outlawed

00:16:13.580 --> 00:16:17.559
the Q rule in 1906. Half a century later, the

00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:19.899
global scientific community was still trying

00:16:19.899 --> 00:16:22.500
to clean up the administrative mess left behind

00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:24.980
by the transition. It's astounding. It really

00:16:24.980 --> 00:16:26.980
makes you wonder what the ultimate payoff was.

00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.200
Surely, after surviving that century of upheaval,

00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:32.299
we have it all figured out today. You would think

00:16:32.299 --> 00:16:35.080
so. But the reality of modern taxonomy is what

00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.820
makes this history so relevant today. More than

00:16:37.820 --> 00:16:40.100
100 years since the Q Rule was banished, the

00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:42.580
fallout is still actively happening. Wait, still?

00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:46.299
Still. Human history is notoriously messy. In

00:16:46.299 --> 00:16:49.000
the 1800s, people were publishing obscure botanical

00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.559
pamphlets, printing local journals with incredibly

00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:54.360
limited circulation, and documenting plants and

00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:56.909
texts that were largely lost to time. And the

00:16:56.909 --> 00:16:59.269
source material highlights this exact phenomenon.

00:16:59.929 --> 00:17:02.929
Previously overlooked botanical literature continues

00:17:02.929 --> 00:17:05.730
to yield new examples of forgotten older names.

00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:08.650
Right. We have modern scientists utilizing incredible

00:17:08.650 --> 00:17:11.710
digital archives, scanning through texts that

00:17:11.710 --> 00:17:13.950
haven't been read in centuries. And when they

00:17:13.950 --> 00:17:16.490
uncover a dusty old journal featuring a plant

00:17:16.490 --> 00:17:18.990
name published with a date that beats the currently

00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:22.009
accepted name, the strict rules of priority immediately

00:17:22.009 --> 00:17:25.240
kick in. So taxonomists working today are still

00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:27.599
routinely forced to change plant names that have

00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:30.339
been universally recognized for decades, purely

00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:32.680
to comply with the strict chronological code

00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:35.700
established back in 1905. Yes. The scientific

00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:38.460
community endured decades of chaos, scrapped

00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.519
their entire administrative filing system in

00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:43.460
1959, and abandoned the flexibility of the Q

00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:46.210
rule. all in the pursuit of ultimate objective

00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:48.509
stability. They operated on the assumption that

00:17:48.509 --> 00:17:50.650
once they found the absolute oldest name for

00:17:50.650 --> 00:17:52.490
everything, the nomenclature would be settled

00:17:52.490 --> 00:17:54.750
forever. But that assumption didn't account for

00:17:54.750 --> 00:17:57.569
the endless depths of historical archives. It

00:17:57.569 --> 00:17:59.750
reveals a profound tension in how we attempt

00:17:59.750 --> 00:18:02.750
to categorize the natural world. On one side

00:18:02.750 --> 00:18:04.690
of the spectrum, you have the desire for strict,

00:18:04.829 --> 00:18:08.630
universal, objective laws. That was a vision

00:18:08.630 --> 00:18:10.910
that triumphed at the Vienna Congress. It offers

00:18:10.910 --> 00:18:13.490
the comfort of a rigorous, verifiable standard.

00:18:14.250 --> 00:18:17.269
The oldest published name wins, without exception.

00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:19.730
Black and white. Exactly. But on the other side

00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:21.809
of the spectrum, you have the desire for practical,

00:18:21.990 --> 00:18:24.430
everyday stability, which was the foundation

00:18:24.430 --> 00:18:27.809
of the Q rule. That philosophy recognizes that

00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:30.269
scientific language is fundamentally a tool for

00:18:30.269 --> 00:18:33.690
communication. If a tool is working flawlessly

00:18:33.690 --> 00:18:36.789
for the entire global community, breaking it

00:18:36.789 --> 00:18:39.549
to satisfy a technicality disrupts the actual

00:18:39.549 --> 00:18:42.369
work of science. It is the eternal battle between

00:18:42.369 --> 00:18:45.069
the ideal and the practical. Looking back at

00:18:45.069 --> 00:18:47.269
the historical record, it is very hard not to

00:18:47.269 --> 00:18:49.390
feel a deep sense of sympathy for Henry Tryman

00:18:49.390 --> 00:18:51.769
and the pragmatists of 1877. They just wanted

00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:54.390
things to work. Exactly. They just wanted scientists,

00:18:54.589 --> 00:18:56.890
farmers, and students to know exactly what plant

00:18:56.890 --> 00:18:58.930
they were talking about without having to rewrite

00:18:58.930 --> 00:19:00.990
their textbooks every time someone uncovered

00:19:00.990 --> 00:19:03.759
a forgotten manuscript in a basement. The pursuit

00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:06.519
of perfect chronological order ended up guaranteeing

00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:08.539
a different kind of perpetual disorder. Which

00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:10.440
leaves us with a critical question to consider

00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.339
about the systems we rely on today. We've traced

00:19:13.339 --> 00:19:15.799
how the pursuit of a perfect rule -bound methodology

00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:19.799
caused a century of massive administrative upheaval.

00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:22.920
We know that even in the modern era, a taxonomist

00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:25.420
can still be legally bound to change a universally

00:19:25.420 --> 00:19:27.779
recognized plant name simply because someone

00:19:27.779 --> 00:19:30.619
unearths a dusty 200 -year -old book. Right.

00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:32.670
So here is something for you to think about.

00:19:33.330 --> 00:19:36.390
If a strict chronological code guarantees that

00:19:36.390 --> 00:19:38.750
our scientific vocabulary will remain vulnerable

00:19:38.750 --> 00:19:42.150
to endless historical treasure hunting, is our

00:19:42.150 --> 00:19:45.029
modern strict system actually any more stable

00:19:45.029 --> 00:19:47.710
than the flexible Q rule it replaced? That's

00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:49.809
a fascinating point. Something to ponder the

00:19:49.809 --> 00:19:51.950
next time you see a plant with a long, complicated

00:19:51.950 --> 00:19:54.950
Latin name. Remember the intense academic drama,

00:19:55.150 --> 00:19:57.569
the angry letters published in 19th century journals,

00:19:57.690 --> 00:20:00.089
and the century of administrative chaos that

00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:02.990
went into deciding exactly what to call it. thank

00:20:02.990 --> 00:20:05.150
you for joining us for this deep dive keep questioning

00:20:05.150 --> 00:20:07.150
the rules of the world around you even the ones

00:20:07.150 --> 00:20:09.230
that seem set in stone we'll catch you next time