Abstract
‘It is of no interest to me what it is — I only want to know what it does!’ This and similar statements are often heard in groups of microbiologists active in research or in the applied areas of the field when it comes to the question: what kind of microorganism are you working with? Such scientists like to stress their wish to avoid the burden of time-consuming taxonomic work and to have a rather more stream-lined, straightforward research, development and production programme. This attitude is not new. Even the great Louis Pasteur was reported to have said when his coworker informed him that an organism which he had thought to be a coccus in fact was a short rod, ‘I wish I could convey to you how little this information excites me’ (Duclaux, 1896).
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Fritze, D., Weihs, V. (2000). Systematics and Legislation. In: Priest, F.G., Goodfellow, M. (eds) Applied Microbial Systematics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4020-1_16
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