Helge Kragh, <i>The Names of Science: Terminology and Language in the History of the Natural Sciences</i> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 352. ISBN 978-0-19-891745-8. £110.00 (hardback).

Scientific terms are integral to the conduct of science and encapsulate the trajectories of scientists' practices.Helge Kragh traces how terms in science are coined, endure, fade and migrate, illuminating the diverse practices of scientists and their transformations over time, while also exploring the historical relationship between language and science.Building on his etymological investigation in physics and cosmology from the past decade, Kragh broadens his scope to integrate linguistic elements with the history of science.Following an introduction to key linguistic terms, the text is organized into six chapters, each focusing on specific areas of physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy and cosmology, while providing insightful digressions into other fields and broader linguistic concepts.The book is designed for both humanist and scientific audiences.Readers can either pick up terms from the index and explore their stories and implications, or follow the historical trajectory of science through its nomenclature, gaining a deeper understanding of how the development of science is intertwined with language.Kragh's description underscores that scientists seriously and deliberately engage with names.Michael Faraday sought William Whewell's advice on the electrochemical terms he was introducing, leading to the incorporation of terms such as 'ion', 'anion' and 'cation' into the scientific lexicon (pp.80-5); at Bell Labs, scientists voted for the name 'transistor' (pp.116-18); Galileo named Jupiter's moons 'Medicea Sidera' in honour of his patron (p.249); the 'Bunsen burner' was named to capitalize on Robert Bunsen's fame -although his role in its invention has been questioned (p.200); name disputes, such as those over element names, often mirror broader controversies in theory and discovery.The stories behind some names thus reveal the diverse strategies scientists employ.Kragh also observes that the way scientists form new names has shifted over time.Eponyms -terms derived from individuals -have long been common but often controversial for priority, practical, political and ideological reasons.'Stigler's law of eponymy', itself an eponym, asserts that no discovery is named after its original discoverer (pp.23-4), an exaggeration, yet, in many cases, eponyms are misleading or inaccurate.As scientific research became more collaborative, particularly in the late twentieth century, attributing names to individuals became increasingly untenable.While forming new terms from Greek or Latin roots was once the established tradition, deviations have emerged, including hybrid terms such as Paul Dirac's 'eigenstate' (a fusion of German and English) (p.177) and super-names like 'superconductivity ' and 'supernova' (pp.105-6).These shifts reflect broader changes in modes of scientific practice and communication.