Scientific names of living species look Latin, but this is not enough for distinguishing them.

What is it about?

Latin scientific names of living species is a marker of scientific litterature, including popularization texts. They are even markers of sub-disciplines of science. And they work as markers even if the reader does not fully understand them. We have large archives of an ancient French science popularization magazine (LA NATURE, 1873-1960) in which we want to help a modern reader to navigate. One way of helping the reader is to map the archives on scientific disciplines. Thus the need to identify markers. Latin names of species look Latin, but this is not enough for distinguishing them in a French text. They are rare words, but it is not enough again. They are both Latin and rare, and this is enough. The two criteria are relatively inexpensive and easy to play with. Altogether, they form a nice alternative to more expensive, and less predictable methods, like methods based on neuronal AI.

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Photo by Bethany Laird on Unsplash

Photo by Bethany Laird on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work is part of a wider endeavour to make the archives of LA NATURE available to a wider public and to Digital Humanity studies. These archives cover a period (1873-1960) which is often described as the creation and the development of the modern world: the development of novel energy forms, the development of new transportation means, the development of modern public health, etc. They also have an unvolontary political content because they cover the rise and fall of the large European colonial empires, and this is transparent in many natural science subjects. And they have even an interest for modern questionments because they present from the beginning traces of worries for deforestation, climate change, etc.

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