He\She looks more like a Philip. In fact, it looks very much lke a former elementary classmate. He was a brillant student. Consistantly came up with these incredible science fair projects. Consistanly scared the heck out of the faculty, too. Pam is good, too.

I think that Nova is a beautiful Name and also means new which is quite fitting for the most recent mammal discovered.

Katherina - "Kate" of course

I love the fact that scientists nowadays are allowed to show their wonderful sense of humor, believe me I can be entertained for hours by brilliant podcasts such as Radiolab. But I'd have to agree with Noah from Chicago -

After decades, centuries, millennium - what was once momentary wit might become fodder for grad scholars and --ologists, inventing theories as to why the very first mammal was called such an unusual name, and what, if anything, that obscure name once meant to our culture so many millions of years ago, when it was chosen by a highly specialized and selective panel of people, under such tightly controlled circumstances that they never met each other face to face or even knew each others' real names.

So what are our choices again? :)

PLEASE VOTE NOVA! she is the best name by far. Also she is the best teacher ever.

i so concur with Lisa from California about Vole de Mort :)

when is the next round???

"Nova" still looks the best to me -- "new" and inNOVAtive -- short and sweet.
Susan Willens

Oh come on, where's the sense of humor that can make these dry things so memorable? I think 'Vole de Mort' is just hysterical! Have some fun. It makes Radiolab delightful.

I think that this is a very neat and clever idea. In fact, I wish that I thought of it.

a good example of forced choices.
after several rounds of 'choices,' a winner will be picked that very few people would have wanted from the beginning.
like getting your 3 year old dressed in the morning, who doesn't want to get dressed. do you want the blue tights or the red tights? they didn't want ANY tights, but given the 'choice' they pick one and you can get them out the door.
underlying question is, is this a good way to decide things. do enough people end up being happy that we can all live with the result? does the act of choosing make up for the fact that we don't like the choices much to begin with. or do we have choice fatigue? "enough already, that one?"
the republican primary comes to mind.
so what is the best way to choose things?

the last three are just spammer who want to push their own suggestion

Hello everyone out there,
I am also with Matteo and Ari.
Nova was great and though she is currently sick we know it would mean the world to her if we won so please VOTE for Nova!!!
7th Grade

Im with the previous comment from matteo here. we really miss nova, and we know she would love if it won!

Please vote for it if your suggestion is out or even if its not!)

Thanks,
Ari
7th grade

Hey guys,

So all I want to say is Nova is the name of our science teacher who recently suffered a blood clot in her brain. She has been gone for 5 months now and we miss her so much. She was such a huge part of our community, she was caring, nice, and advised me whenever I got in trouble in classes. I am in 8th grade.

Thank you,
Matteo

Basal, by far, is the best choice, even if it is misspelled 'basil'.

some really silly names for our ancestor....why not mamamammal?

Phooey. I don't like any of the choices that are left. :(

is it a joke? I like it anyway! Voldemord, gorgeous

I'm also outraged at Kate getting knocked out...since I was one of the first to submit it. ;-) Sigh. So much for my cleverness.

Oh, democracy.

I'm shallowly outraged that 'Hypotheshrew' beat 'Kate,' which I thought was clearly the best choice of the lot. If this name is supposed to do for the shrew what 'Lucy' did for Australopithecus, it's got to be just as simple and classic - and 'Kate' is. 'Kate' even has the sort of double meaning that most of the first round's winners have - it's a reference to Kate, the title character from 'The Taming of the Shrew.' But I'm guessing the reference wasn't loud enough, and the name didn't have the same glib cleverness as the contorted puns that made it through, so it probably went under the radar.

I won't pretend I'm not a cultural elitist - I am. But in this case I think elitism is justified. In a generation or two, very few people will know what "Dwight Shrewt" or "Vole de Mort" refer to. But people will almost certainly be reading Shakespeare for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Democracy has clearly failed in this case (either people didn't know a good thing when they saw it, or they didn't have the background to see it). So I think a little authoritarian intervention is warranted in this case. Some benevolent tyrant at Radiolab should elevate 'Kate' to the position she deserves.

Go science.