scientific classification

The Star Trek–sounding name, though just a typical scientific classification, was fitting: The suddenly abundant seaweed was a deep-sea mystery originating in a far-flung part of the ocean–exactly the kind of phenomenon that the crew of the Enterprise investigated over hundreds of episodes.

Instead she uploaded the picture to a site called iNaturalist, where strangers have come together to pursue a very specific type of truth: the correct scientific classification for the living things they photograph in the wild or the backyard.

In a career spanning almost 60 years, Janaki studied a wide range of flowering plants and reworked the scientific classification of several families of plants.

“Our weather warning systems were designed to detect and warn for singular threats — they’re biased toward a more siloed and scientific classification of threats,” Henderson wrote in an email.

Instead, researchers argue, they need an entirely new scientific classification.