Biography of Carl von Linné [Linnaeus] | Swedish botanist.

(Carolus Linnaeus in latin; Carlos Linneo in Spanish; Rashult, Sweden, 1707 - Uppsala, id., 1778) . His early interest in plants was that at the age of eight years to emerge you already by the nickname of the small botanical, even though he combined this with studies of medicine, who studied at the universities of Uppsala, and Lundt and vocation with its establishment, in 1738, in the latter city as private physician and Professor of medicine at the University (1741). In addition to botanical expeditions to Lapland, on behalf of the Academy of Sciences in Uppsala, he expanded his studies of medicine in the Netherlands, and toured other European countries, like Britain and France. He was Professor of botany at the University of Uppsala (1742).

Linnaeus
Considered the creator of classification of living beings or taxonomy, he developed a system of binomial nomenclature (1731) that become classic, based on the use of a first term, written in capital letters, indicating the genus and the second part, corresponding to the specific name of the species described, written in lowercase letters. On the other hand, it grouped genera into families, families into classes, classes in types (row) and types into kingdoms.
Attempts to introduce some order in the apparent confusion involving the huge proliferation of living beings had already existed prior to their work. J.-p. was the first who tried to establish a classification. de Tournefort (1656-1708) by introducing a natural leaderboard system based on "objective reality of species, genera and classes". Almost simultaneously, John Ray wrote a monumental work, Historia generalis plantarum (1686-1704), which tried to distribute the plants in a rational manner and define with precision, basically, the notion of species through the establishment of relationships with a community of origin.
Tournefort and Ray work had continuity of Linné's initial investigations in the field of Botany, which focused on the study of the stamens and the pistil, and that led him to think that he could introduce a new and better classification of plants, based on the study of the reproductive tract (sexual system). However, taking into account only the character of the flower, the system, even in the opinion of the author, was too artificial.
This problem was solved with the introduction of the so-called binary classification, which allowed him to classify over 8,000 animal species and 6,000 vegetable. Thus, he was the first scientist who used the symbols of the shield and the Spear of Mars and the mirror of Venus to indicate, respectively, male and female. His work earned him the grant of a title of nobility in his country.
The publication of his work the plant species (Species plantarum) in 1753 is considered the official start of the application of the modern nomenclature in biology. Defender of the immutability of species - contrary, therefore, to the idea of evolution - considered that all them were created separately in the beginning of time. After his death, his collections were acquired by an English naturalist, who took them to the United Kingdom, where served as the unifying kernel of the famous Linnaean Society.
Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas
Biographies of historical figures and personalities