A black-capped chickadee by any other name is a Poecile atricapillus. That’s the bird’s scientific name, the reference used worldwide to avoid the confusion a list of local names could offer. For ...

Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).

Passiflora incarnata, Nymphaea odorata, Chamaecrista fasciculata, Asclepius incarnata! Sounds like spells from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, doesn’t it? While these words could come ...

When did humans begin to assign names to each other? It’s a question that has occupied researchers for decades. What is clear, however, is how important consistent naming is in helping us to make ...

A new deep-sea species now carries a scientific name chosen by the internet, and researchers say the crowdsourced approach ...

Scientific name of carrot: Carrots are a key part of a healthy diet. They come in many colors, from the bright orange sticks in a lunchbox to the dark purple roots found in artisanal markets. But what ...