What's In a Name?

Long before they were units of measurement, Curie, Fahrenheit, Ohm, and Watt were exceptional scientists.


Indeed, in years past, you had to be pretty exceptional to get something named after you. But standards have dropped lately, as evidenced by the miniscule Calponia harrisonfordi spider, named for the star of the Indiana Jones movies. Now, two corporate titans have brought the name game to a new low. In an odd attempt at cross-promotion, computer game giant Nintendo has struck a deal with biotech giant Syngenta, which sells seeds for thousands of plants. Syngenta has bred a flower it calls Pikmin-closely resembling a flower that grows from the head of a character in Nintendo's new video
game of the same name. What next? A BigMacosaurus?