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If you had to name a new species, what would you call it? Would you name it after yourself, or would go for something a little more out there? Robert Krulwich has an interesting post about people who have used their species naming rights creatively, sometimes for evil! I strongly recommend you check it out, and have a bit of a chortle about trilobytes named Sid viciousi and Johnny rotteni after the Sex Pistols.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, although I prefer mine scaldingly hot, that’s the pirate way. Stab ’em upside the face immediate-like! But if you’re going to go freezer on their arse, then REALLY get back at your enemies with science by naming a nasty plant after them. Hey, people do it, as the link above tells you, one guy named a rather ugly, spiky, boring weed after a critic. Behold Siegesbeckia, a permanent reminder not to criticise botanists.

siegesbeckia

If it were up to me, I’d name a new disease similar to scurvy and call it Skellettitis. I think it has a nice ring to it 😛

What would you do?