Or at least the naming rights. Via Wired
Science:
Retired NBA player Luc Longley, who won three straight
championships with former Tarheel Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls,
recently bestowed the name Lebbeus
clarehanna (after his 15-year-old daughter, Clare Hanna Longley) on a newly
discovered species of shrimp that lives on the southwest coast of Australia. Anna McCallum, now a doctoral student at
the University of Melbourne, discovered the shrimp while working as an
assistant on a research boat. Rather than naming it herself, she auctioned the
right to name the shrimp on eBay and donated the proceeds to the Australian
Marine Conservation Society.
Longley won the auction, with a bid of $2,900.
Selling naming rights to newly-identified species is by no
means a novel development. In
2005, the Wildlife Conservation Society raised $650,000 in a one-week
Internet auction of a newly identified Bolivian monkey. And in Monaco in 2007, Prince Albert II
hosted a black-tie event at which rights to name 10 newly discovered species of
fish were auctioned for more than $2 million, raising money for conservation
efforts in eastern Indonesia (bidders in that auction had to pledge to name the
species after people and not corporate entities). These days, conservation groups,
universities,
and museums
frequently auction naming rights to newly-identified species as a fund-raising
move, though this appears to be the first purchase by a former NBA player
(Longley has been involved in marine conservation efforts before).
The new trend in naming
rights has interested both the public and corporate interests (see, for
example, the GoldenPalace.com Monkey and the spiny worm named after the Nokia
slogan "Connecting People").
Yet others worry about such commercialization of science.
Some scientists contend that, given the scarcity of government
funding and the increasing threats to biodiversity, squeamishness over naming
rights is a luxury the scientific community can’t afford. But others, such as Dr. Ellinor Michel,
executive secretary of the London-based International Commission on Zoological
Nomenclature, contend that “once you start putting prices on things, the basic
economic rule is that if it's something people want to buy, you manufacture
more. And in principle, you shouldn't manufacture species."
Moreover, according to Michel, most new species come from
developing countries, which grant research permits to scientists. If scientists and non-profits outside
of those countries make money through selling naming rights to the species, the
country may feel cheated and cancel research permits.
If any Lounge readers are pondering what to buy me as a
holiday gift, a species named after one of my articles or book chapters would
be most welcome. I wonder if it
would impact the SSRN downloads?
Well, we sell naming rights to everything else, so why not to newly discovered species? On a somewhat related note–of the relationship between names of plants and animals and humans–I was wondering if the abrophyllum orans, aka Native Hyrdangea, is any relation to me?
I wish I'd have thought of this five years ago. Instead of naming my son (Alexander Lorenz) after a former Czech leader and a Broadway lyricist, I could have sold the naming rights to some corporation. I'd gladly have called him Harris Teeter Fink in exchange for a lifetime supply of groceries.
Al — how fitting that youre named after a flower (a hydrangea is a flower isnt it? You can tell that I dont do the gardening).
Eric — I never did figure out if this was a hoax or real, but in case you plan on more little ones: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/whats-in-a-name-four-thousand-and-fifty-dollars/
Though some biologists criticize the practice of selling naming rights, others have been known to show a certain lack of seriousness about the enterprise that suggests the criticism is a bit overblown. Examples include Ba humbugi Solem, 1976 (a land snail from the island of Mba, Fiji) and Vini vidivici Steadman and Zarriello, 1987 (an extinct parrot from the Cook Islands). And then there's Pison eu Menke, 1988 (a South American wasp), which would appear to test the limits of the provision of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature's Code of Ethics that "No author should propose a name that, to his or her knowledge or reasonable belief, would be likely to give offense on any grounds." Not to mention Rochlingia hitleri Guthorl, 1934 (an extinct insect).
Nice post.