Have you ever wondered how scientists name and classify the vast array of living organisms on our planet? This fascinating field is known as taxonomy. In a fun twist, a group of expert taxonomists from the Field Museum in Chicago decided to apply their skills to something a bit unconventional: candy! Let’s dive into this sweet experiment and learn more about taxonomy along the way.
Our journey begins with a team of curators from the Field Museum: Olivier Rieppel, Janet Voight, Larry Heaney, and Margaret Thayer. Each of them specializes in different areas of biology, from evolutionary studies to the classification of mammals and insects. Together, they embarked on a unique challenge: classifying a variety of candies based on their characteristics.
The team had an assortment of candies to work with, including Skittles, Peanut M&Ms, Nerds, Starbursts, Reese’s Pieces, Jellybeans, and more. The goal was to classify these candies in a way that made sense, much like how they would classify living organisms.
Olivier explained that classification can be applied to anything, not just organisms. While living things are classified based on evolutionary relationships, candies can be grouped by similarities in shape, color, or ingredients.
Janet highlighted the importance of distinguishing new species from others that look similar. In the candy experiment, this meant examining the candies closely to identify unique features. Larry suggested grouping candies by their chocolate content, while Margaret emphasized the importance of investigating the candies’ contents.
As they sorted through the candies, they considered various classification methods. For example, grouping all red candies together might seem logical, but as Margaret pointed out, this would be like grouping different red birds together despite their distinct species differences.
Emily, one of the participants, shared her knowledge of Jelly Bellies, revealing that there are 36 different flavors. Margaret suggested that Jelly Bellies could be considered a genus, with each flavor representing a different species. This approach mirrors how taxonomists classify organisms into families, genera, and species.
As the experiment unfolded, the team reflected on the broader implications of classification. Olivier posed a thought-provoking question: Are we imposing order on the world, or does the world naturally present itself in an ordered way? This philosophical inquiry highlights the complexity and subjectivity involved in classification.
Through this playful exploration of candy taxonomy, we gain insight into the principles and challenges of scientific classification. Whether it’s organisms or candies, the process involves careful observation, comparison, and sometimes a touch of creativity. As we classify the world around us, we not only learn about the objects themselves but also about our own perspectives and choices.
So next time you enjoy a handful of candies, take a moment to consider how you might classify them. You might just discover a new appreciation for the art and science of taxonomy!
Gather a variety of candies and attempt to classify them using different criteria such as color, shape, or ingredients. Discuss with your peers the rationale behind your classification choices and compare them to biological taxonomy principles.
Engage in a debate on the philosophical question posed by Olivier: “Are we imposing order on the world, or does the world naturally present itself in an ordered way?” Use examples from both biological taxonomy and the candy experiment to support your arguments.
Take a virtual tour of the Field Museum’s exhibits related to taxonomy. Focus on how different organisms are classified and reflect on how these methods were applied in the candy classification challenge.
Identify and classify items in your daily environment, such as books, clothing, or kitchen utensils. Present your classification system to the class and discuss how it relates to the principles of taxonomy.
Create a visual project that illustrates the taxonomy of a chosen group of items, such as plants, animals, or even fictional creatures. Use the candy classification experiment as inspiration for your approach and presentation.
**Sanitized Transcript:**
[Emily]: Hey! So taxonomy is a complicated and interesting field of science responsible for the naming and classification of things. We started to get into this topic with our previous episode on “What is a Species,” where we looked into species definitions and concepts. I thought it would be fun to do a hands-on experiment, and there’s nothing better than getting a couple of expert taxonomists involved.
[Olivier]: I’m Olivier Rieppel. I’m the Roe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology here at the Field Museum in Chicago.
[Janet]: I’m Janet Voight. I’m a MacArthur Associate Curator here at the Field Museum in the Integrative Research Center.
[Larry]: My name is Larry Heaney. I am the Negaunee Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History.
[Margaret]: My name’s Margaret Thayer. I’m a curator emeritus at the Field Museum, and I study insects, particularly beetles.
[Emily]: We wanted to get them to look at something in-depth that maybe they hadn’t considered classifying before: candy! We have Skittles, Peanut M&Ms, Peanut Butter M&Ms, Nerds, Plain M&Ms, Starbursts, Reese’s Pieces, Jellybeans, Chocolate-covered Peanuts, Chewy Jolly Ranchers, and Starburst Jellybeans. We even had some black licorice, but I lost it. That’s right—we’re doing the taxonomy of candy.
[Brain Scoop intro music]
[Olivier]: If you want to classify things, that can be anything. Organisms are classified according to evolutionary relationships, and with candy, or office furniture, or whatever, you classify according to similarities.
[Janet]: The art of taxonomy requires that you separate the new thing you think you’ve found as much as possible from every other species that looks like it.
[Larry]: I like chocolate-covered candy.
[Emily]: Okay.
[Larry]: So we could group it together that way.
[Emily]: So, essentially, all of these on this side, and we can move the Nerds over here.
[Larry]: And that one too.
[Emily]: Yup.
[Larry]: Can I have one of those?
[Emily]: Yes, feel free.
[Margaret]: I think investigating their contents would be important. It’s not quite as hard as it looks.
[Emily]: Oh wow!
[Margaret]: That has some kind of jelly material in it. (chewing) I don’t usually use this test for specimens, but… (both laugh)
[Emily]: Do you eat the beetles that you study?
[Margaret]: No, not normally. We occasionally sniff them, but that’s all.
[Emily]: Oh.
[Olivier]: Here are the roundish things, the big ones, and then the smaller roundish things would be more closely related to that batch here than to any of the others.
[Janet]: Right now I’m approaching these jars as collections made of what’s likely the same species. The collections were made at one spot, at one time.
[Emily]: You went to the river, put the jar in the water, and it was filled with Reese’s Pieces.
[Janet]: Yeah.
[Emily]: Okay.
[Janet]: In a hypothetical scenario, I mean, but… (both laugh)
[Larry]: So we could group things together, putting the chocolate ones together that way, or we could take the red ones and put those together.
[Emily]: All of the red ones.
[Margaret]: That would be like taking a whole bunch of different red birds and putting them all together because they’re red, but one of them is a cardinal and one is some kind of duck, and you know… they’re not related at all.
[Emily]: They’re not even close.
[Margaret]: Yeah.
[Emily]: So would you put those with the other bean shapes, here?
[Olivier]: So these are the bean shapes, here… and then you have the bean-shaped ones, you have the rounded ones that go closer, that go over with the bean-shaped… And you have the small rounded ones that go closer with those…
[Janet]: So just flipping through these, I’m seeing these Reese’s Pieces: different colors, but the shape is remarkably uniform. These, with a strange letter “M,” have some damage—I see their insides are actually chocolate. So my hypothesis is that each of these things, despite being a different color, actually has chocolate inside.
[Emily]: So you think that the red Skittles and the red Jolly Ranchers, and the red black-covered licorice, as unusual as it is, can all be one thing?
[Larry] (eating candy): Absolutely. That’s the thing about candy. You can group them any way you want.
[Emily]: Mm-hmm.
[Larry]: Doesn’t matter.
[Olivier]: The way they are mixed up, you can’t classify them by colors because there are all colors in one.
[Emily]: Right.
[Olivier]: So, not many characters to go with.
[Emily]: I have insider knowledge: I have done extensive work on the taxonomy of Jelly Bellies.
[Margaret]: (laughing)
[Emily]: And I can tell you that there are 36 different flavors in here. What would you make of something like that?
[Margaret]: Well, it could be that if we worked out the taxonomy of these things, we might decide that the Jelly Bellies were a genus unto themselves, and those 36, 37 flavors were different species of Jelly Bellies.
[Emily]: Oh wow.
[Margaret]: Similarly, those other jelly bean things could be interpreted that way as well.
[Emily]: They’re like the same family.
[Margaret]: *clears throat* Yeah.
[Emily]: They’re in the jelly bean family.
[Margaret]: The jelly bean family, right.
[Emily]: I want to organize candy in a way where I can reach my hand in and grab them all. You can’t do that with the red candy because then you’ve got like the peanut M&M and then the cinnamon Jelly Belly.
[Larry]: Cinnamon and peanut butter actually would go together well…
[Larry]: You can try that.
[Emily]: Um, I’m okay.
[Emily]: I’m alright. *both start laughing*
[Janet]: So you take out your pen, paper, and computer and you say, “Why are they different?” You add all those up and then you go back and look in the literature for previously published descriptions of things that are similar.
[Emily]: Uh-huh.
[Janet]: In the same genus, let’s say—or maybe in related genera, because sometimes a genus isn’t as clear as you think it is…
[Emily]: Nyeah…
[Janet]: But then you read those, and you look at them, and if you’re kind of confused, then you try to get a hold of specimens, so that way…
[Emily]: And then it keeps going.
[Olivier]: The goal of classification, in terms of organisms, is to bring out their evolutionary relationships.
[Larry]: What makes organisms so different is that our classifications are based on their relationships, on their ancestors. We don’t put red bats and red foxes together. We could put red candy together! It makes perfect sense, why not? But we don’t do it with red bats and red foxes because they don’t share a common ancestor except way back.
[Olivier]: Yeah, there are many ways to classify things, and it’s an interesting problem. Why are there so many ways to classify things, and what do these different classifications say about the world?
[Emily]: And what does it say about us as people—
[Olivier]: As people, exactly.
[Emily]: For choosing the ways we choose.
[Olivier]: Which raises the question: are we bringing order to the world, or does the world come to us in an ordered way?
[Olivier]: It’s probably the first way around.
[Emily]: Oh wow. Now you’re going into the philosophical rabbit hole.
Taxonomy – The science of classifying organisms into structured categories based on shared characteristics and evolutionary history. – In biology, taxonomy is crucial for organizing the vast diversity of life into a coherent system that reflects evolutionary relationships.
Classification – The process of arranging entities into groups based on shared attributes or criteria. – The classification of chemical elements into the periodic table allows scientists to predict the properties of elements based on their position.
Organisms – Living entities that have the ability to act or function independently, encompassing a wide range of life forms from single-celled bacteria to complex multicellular beings. – Studying the interactions between different organisms in an ecosystem helps ecologists understand the balance of natural environments.
Species – A group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, sharing common characteristics and genetic heritage. – The concept of species is fundamental in evolutionary biology, as it helps scientists track the lineage and diversification of life forms over time.
Philosophy – The study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, and the nature of reality. – Philosophy of science explores the assumptions, foundations, and implications of scientific practices and theories.
Biology – The scientific study of life and living organisms, encompassing their structure, function, growth, evolution, and distribution. – Advances in molecular biology have revolutionized our understanding of genetic processes and their impact on health and disease.
Characteristics – Distinctive attributes or qualities that define and differentiate entities or phenomena. – The characteristics of a chemical reaction, such as temperature and pressure, can significantly influence the reaction’s outcome.
Evolution – The process through which species undergo genetic change over time, leading to the development of new species and diversity of life forms. – Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection provides a framework for understanding the adaptation and survival of organisms in changing environments.
Observation – The act of carefully monitoring or examining phenomena to gather data and form conclusions. – Accurate observation is a critical component of the scientific method, allowing researchers to test hypotheses and validate theories.
Creativity – The ability to generate novel and valuable ideas or solutions, often leading to innovative approaches in scientific research and problem-solving. – Creativity in experimental design can lead to breakthroughs in understanding complex biological systems.
