Scientific designations containing a racial slur will be altered — the first time that any species names have been adjusted because of the offence they cause.
Science is and always has been about updating information. That is what differentiates it from say religion, which stays in the exact same spot no matter what. Let’s not be like religion.
Once you get on the euphemism treadmill, you’re going to have a hard time getting off. They’re already talking about making more changes:
A second change to the rules for naming plants that aimed to address problematic names, such as those recognizing people who profited from the transatlantic slave trade, also passed — albeit in a watered-down form
IMO the only hard line, and the one that should have been drawn, is that scientific names are only changed due to new discoveries in cladistics. Following wherever the winds of popular culture happen to blow isn’t “updating information” in a positive sense.
And what would be different if we changed it?
Right, nothing.
Science is and always has been about updating information. That is what differentiates it from say religion, which stays in the exact same spot no matter what. Let’s not be like religion.
Once you get on the euphemism treadmill, you’re going to have a hard time getting off. They’re already talking about making more changes:
IMO the only hard line, and the one that should have been drawn, is that scientific names are only changed due to new discoveries in cladistics. Following wherever the winds of popular culture happen to blow isn’t “updating information” in a positive sense.