‘Every Living Thing’ author Jason Roberts on the quest to survey all of life

Does life on this planet belong in tidy, static categories? Or is it a dynamic swirl of complexities? That question is at the heart of a book that tackles the subject of every living thing. It centres on the differing arguments of two men from the 18th century: Swedish doctor and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who espoused the “tidy” theory; and French naturalist Georges Louis de Buffon, who had a more complex way of looking at things. The book explores the clash of their conflicting worldviews that has continued well after their deaths. The author of “Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life”, Jason Roberts, spoke to us in Perspective. His book has now been translated into French as “Tout ce qui vit et respire” or “Everything that lives and breathes”.