Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné ({{Audio|sv-Carl_von_Linné.ogg|listen}}), and in English usually under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. He is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology (see History of ecology).

Other accomplishments

• Linnaeus is one of the finest prose writers in Swedish. His travel journals contain pithy notes on everything of interest he encountered, not just plants. He didn't just write from personal interest, but as a reporter to the enlightened scientific and political public. His journey to sub-Arctic Lapland is notable for exotic and adventurous episodes. He also composed some down-to-earth sex-instruction lectures published as "Om sättet att tillhopa gå" .
• Linnaeus' original botanical garden may still be seen in Uppsala.
• He originated the practice of using the ♂ - (shield and arrow) Mars and ♀ - (hand mirror) Venus glyphs as the symbol for male and female.
• Linnaeus was instrumental in the development of the Celsius (then called Centigrade) temperature scale. Anders Celsius had proposed using 0 as the boiling point of water, and 100 as the freezing point; Linneaus inverted it to the form we are familiar with today http://www.astro.uu.se/history/Celsius_eng.html.
• His picture can be found on the current Swedish 100 kronor bank notes http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=10571.
• Linnaeus was one of the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
• Linnaeus is the only human being customarily referred to by a single initial. In botany, the name (often partly abbreviated) of the person who described a species follows immediately after the scientific name: Cocos nucifera L. is the complete scientific name for the coconut, with the "L." referring to Carolus Linnaeus.
• Linnaeus was said to be a man of great social skills. Karlfeldt's words "han talte med bönder på bönders vis, och med lärde män på latin" give a good characterization of his manner.
• He created the "Petal Time Clock". His findings found that different species of flowers open at different times everyday. For example, he discovered that the hawk's beard plant, opened its flowers at 6:30 am, whereas another species, the hawkbit, did not open its flowers until 7 am. After much research into this, he soon concluded that one could tell the time of day simply by watching the flowers in their garden. This method of keeping time did not catch on with everyone.