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<h2>Happy 300th Birthday, Linnaeus</h2><strong>John Bohannon</strong>
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<em>A series of reports on connections between science, culture, and the arts from</em> Science <em>Contributing Correspondent John Bohannon, who, in true <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/752b#" onclick="toggleElement('GonzoDef');return false">gonzo</a> style, will participate in the events he covers. </em>
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<li style="font-size: 85%"><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist/">All articles in the series</a> </li>
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<img class="Logo" src="http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/misc/webfeat/gonzoscientist/images/gonzologo_120.jpg" alt="The Gonzo Scientst" width="120" height="157" /> <span class="drop">O</span>ne thing was clear to me by the time Åke Bruce entered the room wearing a powdered wig and finery: This was by far the strangest birthday party I had ever attended.
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The birthday boy, Carl Linnaeus, is long dead--he was born 300 years ago. But to mark this nicely round number, Sweden was determined to throw a party befitting one of her most famous scientific sons. He is best known as the inventor of modern taxonomy, the Latin names that divide organisms into species based on shared traits. The innovation helped pave the way for Darwinism a century later. But like a rock star who is only remembered for that one catchy song, Linnaeus's numerous other contributions are appreciated only by the groupies.
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He invented field biology. Linnaeus named thousands of species himself and trained a generation of biologists who journeyed to the four corners of the world in search of the rest. (Half of them died in the process.) And that's not all. He helped local astronomer Anders Celsius design the modern thermometer. He wrote important treatises on physiology, history, and economics--and the list goes on. There seemed to be no academic realm the Swede left untouched. So it was not surprising that while I was in Sweden, there were no fewer than three Linnaeus-celebratory conferences under way.
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Bruce wanted his party to stand out. As a nutrition scientist at the Swedish National Food Administration, he knew just how to do it. "Linnaeus was passionate about food and diet," he says, and not just as an epicurean or a "foodie." Based on the man's published works, says Bruce, food--its origins, how best to prepare and serve it, and its effects on health--lay at the intersection of all of Linnaeus's interests.
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So for the past 3 years, Bruce has led a team of Swedish researchers to prepare the ultimate Linnean foodfest. Scholars from around the world were invited to explore the culture and science of food in the time of Linnaeus, as well as the progress that food science has made 300 years hence. And to get everyone in the proper frame of mind, master chefs collaborated.
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The output was 3 days of food-related lectures by diverse experts--biochemists, historians, agricultural scientists, and psychologists--punctuated by recreations of 18th century meals. And to entertain us, Bruce wrote a play based on Linnaeus's journals and correspondence. The 10 roles were divvied up, with Bruce playing Linnaeus. His wife, Ingar Ribbe Bruce, not only performed in the play, but she also designed and handmade all the period costumes for the troupe. (She is a surgeon at Uppsala University Hospital when not acting or sewing.)
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For the title of the event, Bruce turned to a treatise by Linnaeus in which he compares the food culture of his time with that of ancient Rome and Athens: <em>Culina Mutata</em>, the changing kitchen.
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<img style="border: 0px" src="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol318/issue5851/images/small/752b-1-thumb.jpg" alt="Figure 1; all illustrations by Katrien Kolenberg" width="237" height="175" />
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<strong>All illustrations by Katrien Kolenberg</strong>
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<h3>What's Ahead</h3>
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<li><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/752b#section1">Better than Gruel</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/752b#section2">The Crayfish Mystery</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/752b#section3">The Cartesian War on Fat</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5851/752b#section4">The Royal Banquet</a> </li>
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<strong>Also see:</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist/episode2/audioslides.html" target="show" onclick="window.open('/sciext/gonzoscientist/episode2/audioslides.html', 'show', config='height=610,width=810,location=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,toolbar=0,status=0,top=0,left=0'); return false">Audio Slideshow: Happy 300th Birthday, Linnaeus!</a>
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<span class="drop">W</span>hat people ate in 18th century Europe depended on their place in the social order. The diet of a farmhand was strikingly different from that of a Swedish nobleman just down the road. So the meals, researched and designed by food scholar Gunilla Lindell, provided a kind of walking tour through late Baroque society. We worked our way up through the strata, starting from the bottom with a peasant's lunch.
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And here was my first surprise. What comes to mind when you think of peasant food? For me, it's a steaming bowl of gray gruel. But I would be proud to serve this smörgåsbord for my own birthday. To wake up the tongue, it began with salted herring and fresh onion. (The fish was prepared as in the time of Linnaeus, even saltier than what you find today--so "shock" the tongue is more accurate.) Balancing this blast of flavor were green peas and an addictive warm salad of pearl barley, parsley, and pork. Then came a sort of light omelet with embedded crayfish morsels, washed down with a drink made from lightly fermented juniper berries, and rounded off with a creamy dried plum tapioca.
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<h3>Additional Feature:<br />
Audio Slideshow</h3>
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<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist/episode2/audioslides.html" target="show" onclick="window.open('http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist/episode2/audioslides.html', 'show', config='height=610,width=810,location=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,toolbar=0,status=0,top=0,left=0'); return false"><img src="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol318/issue5851/images/small/752b-2-thumb.jpg" alt="Figure2; Audio Slideshow" width="150" height="121" /></a>
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<p style="padding-bottom: 5px; border-bottom: #ccc 1px solid">
John Bohannon narrat<p class='post-footer'>
original link:
<a href='http://Apiaceae.github.io/blog/2009/04/08/%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6%E6%9D%82%E5%BF%97-%E6%9E%97%E5%A5%88300%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4%E7%9A%84%E7%94%9F%E6%97%A5/'>http://Apiaceae.github.io/blog/2009/04/08/%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6%E6%9D%82%E5%BF%97-%E6%9E%97%E5%A5%88300%E5%91%A8%E5%B9%B4%E7%9A%84%E7%94%9F%E6%97%A5/</a><br/>
written by <a href='http://Apiaceae.github.io'>Hooker</a>
posted at <a href='http://Apiaceae.github.io'>http://Apiaceae.github.io</a>
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