The Blue Book is in PDF 10 Sep 2009 Systematists know the tome by Gareth Nelson and Norman Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography (1981), as the Blue Book (shades of Wittgenstein!). It was published once and is now so hard to get that I have been unable to find a copy in ten years of looking. Now, Malte Ebach tells me, the series at UCP of which my book is part, is making a legal PDF available here. I’m taking it to the local print shop for a physical copy. It’s not searchable (but give me a copy of Acrobat and I’ll make it so), but at least it’s there. The core historical narrative of it started me off on what became my book. If anyone can send me a scan of the cover and spine, I’ll upload it on my box.net page. History Species and systematics Species concept Systematics
Evolution The Shandyan dilemma 18 Jan 201219 Jan 2012 Reginald Hill, author of the Dalziel and Pascoe detective series among many others, has died. This is a partial post I started some time back, so I thought I’d post it as is. In Recalled to Life, Reginald Hill has one of his two protagonists, Pascoe, interview an ex-nanny who… Read More
History Turtles all the way down 28 Mar 201122 Jun 2018 There is a story, often told about the philosopher William James: One day when the philosopher William James, who had a liking for scientific popularization, had just finished explaining in a small American town how the earth revolved around the sun, he saw, according to the anecdote, an elderly lady… Read More
Evolution Darwin’s motivation 5 Dec 2010 For some time now I have been convinced that Darwin’s original and most pressing problem was not adaptation. It was the existence of taxonomic diversity. I have thought that the debates over what was a natural classification amongst the unjustly derided Quinarians William Sharp Macleay and William Swainson were the… Read More
In morphometrics (my field), the “blue book” is a different book entirely. We also have the orange book, the black book, the red book …
Now there’s a meme, John. “Decode the book:” I add “the white book” and “the camel book.” For bonus points, pick the field as well.
Not to brag, but I got myself a copy of the blue book, dust jacket and all, after only 8 years of looking. I got Platnick to sign it before I left the AMNH (ok, now I am bragging). I’ll get you a scan next week after I return home from holidays [/brag]