"King Phillip Came Over From German Soil" - anyone remember that? It's a mnemonic, designed to make it easier to recall the Linnean ranks: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. Unfortunately, ranks change (Phylum and Family were inserted in the 1870s at an international meeting in Paris), and a new one has been proposed (and hotly debated): Domain. So what should the mnemonic now be? "Dumb King Phillip..."?
There are a host of mnemonics for biology (and even more for medicine). Jason Grossman, sometime commentator and fulltime good guy, sent me this suggestion:
I needed a mnemonic for the classification system Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
Almost all the existing mnemonics leave out Domain, which is no good, especially for my purposes. The only one I could find which included Domain was "Dear Kate, please come over for great sex", which in addition to being rude (or despite being nicely rude) isn't particularly easy to remember.
So I employed a highly paid consultant linguist, and she came up with:
Do koalas prefer chocolate or fruit, generally speaking?
I believe this is now in the public domain.
Do any readers have favourite mnemonics for biology they like to share? For anything but medicine...
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Kinky People Can Orgasm From Great Sex
Maybe I'm dating myself, but I learned this in the '70s. I assume the domain hadn't been part of the taxonomy:
Kids play chess on fiber glass stairs.
}8^)
Does this count as biology? C Hopkins, Cafe Mgr - the elements involved in organic chemistry.
A high school biology teacher introduced us to one in Spanish that does not have only the initials but the actual words! It is:
"El rey es un tipo de clase que ordena para su familia genero de toda especie"
which literally translates as: "The king is a guy with class who orders for his family fabric of every kind"
because "tipo" means both "phylum" and (in slang) "guy"; "genero" means both "genre" and "fabric" (as well as "gender", too) and "especie" can mean biological species or just "kind" in a general context.
Kinky Policemen Can Often Fancy Gay Sergeants.
Hey, why so bio-centric? There are a lot of good geologic mnemonics, especially for the time scale.
I guess I was a sheltered kid, I always used the innocent "King Phillip Cried Out "For Goodness Sake"....
I was taught this one, which is similar to Charlie's:
Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Sand. For Domain, I suppose we can change it to a question, asking if they Do.
I don't know any other biology mnemonics, but I'm not a biologist. Give us a hint: what other things might we be trying to remember? The Krebs cycle maybe?
One of the my most vivid memories from 9th grade bio:
King Phillip could only fertilize girl scouts.
I had a new teacher, and he recited it exactly once. I have no idea whether any of his subsequent classes learned it.
Well over a decade ago, in a Student Union Building, I heard someone repeating, "Kangaroos Play Cards On Flat Girls' Stomaches" After she explained why she was repeating this apparent nonsense, I never again had trouble remembering the levels of the biological classification system. Prefix with "Drowsy" or "Dopey" and you've got a memorable mnemonic that meets your needs. I can imagine the scene as painted on black velvet.
A mnemonic I remeber from over 40 years ago (so it must have worked) for the 12 cranial nerves:
"On old Olympus towering top, a Finn and German viewed some hops", ie:
Olfactory I
Optic II
Oculomotor III
Trochlear IV
Trigeminal V
Abducens VI
Facial VII
Auditory (vestibulocochlear) VIII
Glossopharyngeal IX
Vagus X
Spinal Accessory XI
Hypoglossal XII
Hello there,
I thought it might be worth mentioning that therer is a pretty good mnemonics site that outlines all of the major techniques and systems involved in creating good mnemonics.
http://www.buildyourmemory.com
Worth a look for anyone who is interested in mnemonics and memory improvement.
Take care
Billy