Our ignorance is truly staggering. According to some estimates, 95 percent of organisms in the soil alone are unknown to science. Many of them labor unseen, in the dark, serving as the churning stomachs of our planet, digesting dead plants and animals and, in the process, enriching the earth we depend upon for food and fiber. Other organisms expel their gaseous waste — a precious resource known as oxygen —to create the atmosphere that supports and sweetens the earth with such glorious creatures as toucans and manta rays and blue morpho butterflies, not to mention writers and academics. Some bacteria are even thought to contribute to the formation of clouds.

A proposal to change the formal name of Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, has significant implications for research in the life sciences.. Even if you haven’t worked directly with Drosophila melanogaster in a biology course or a research laboratory, you’ve probably seen it first-hand. D. Melanogaster, the common fruit fly, can be seen near almost any trash can or bowl of fruit that has been sitting in sunlight too long. Most scientists refer to the species simply as Drosophila, even though technically there are about 1,450 species in the Drosophila genus.

The 2.5-millimeter-long insect rose to fame in the early 20th century after the biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan used it to show that genetic variations in all organisms are conveyed via the chromosomes contained in cells. Morgan’s work with Drosophila eventually earned him a Nobel Prize, and his student H. J. Muller followed suit. Today Drosophila remains a workhorse in biology labs around the world. The same qualities that

Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. “Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?” No. In our house, it’ll always be: “Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?”

And I’ll pass it, because I know exactly which piece he means. Lego nomenclature is essential for family Lego building.

“Dad, I’m building a roof for the medical pod, but I need a hinge-y bit to make it open up. You know, one of those four-er flat hinge-y bits.”