What do Edward Snowden and Barack Obama have in common?

Not much.

One is a wanted whistleblower who exposed some of the things the National Security Agency (NSA) has been doing, while the other oversees said agency that collects gazillions of pieces of metadata and other similar things.

Snowden outing of the NSA – One of the Big cover-ups of the last 5 years
photo donkeyhotey donkeyhotey.wordpress.com

However, Snowden is following the current US President in one interesting category– he has a new species named after him.

What am I talking about?

In 2012, researchers from the US and Germany discovered a new nematode parasite and named it after the 44th US President–Paragordius obamai.

The reason who this etymological move was that Mr. Obama’s father was raised in Kenya, the same country where the parasite is found.

Now, researchers from the Humbold University Berlin have discovered a new species of crayfish from the Oinsok River Drainage, Sawiat District in the central part of the Kepala Burung (Vogelkop) Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia.

This new crayfish is called Cherax snowden. Why Snowden?

According to lead author of the paper, Christian Lukhaup:

The new species is named after the american freedom fighter Edward Joseph Snowden. He is honored due to of his extraordinary achievements in defense of justice, and freedom. The name is used as a noun in apposition.

Remember recently in Berlin, life-size bronze statues of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning were unveiled in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz Square in front of German politicians and activists.

In Germany and much of the world, the three are considered heroes in the fight for freedom of information and speech, for their respective leaking of classified U.S. documents.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Snowden are not the only people of notoriety to have a new species named after them in their honor.

Also in 2012, researchers at Arkansas State University discovered a small parasitic crustacean in the Caribbean and named it Gnathia marleyi, after none other than late reggae master, Bob Marley.

Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch

Follow @bactiman63

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