Scientific Name

(n.) The scientific name is a “universal language” by which biologists refer to living organisms. Scientific names are in Latin or Greek and are the same regardless of the language spoken by the biologist. A scientific name consists of two words, one for the genus (always capitalized) and one for the species (not capitalized in animals; may be capitalized in plants), and is written in italic type. The scientific name of the human species is Homo sapiens. Many people are afraid of scientific names, but you already know the scientific names of many genera and species, for instance: Hippopotamus, Chrysanthemum, Tyrannosaurus rex.