A dozen articles in current issue of Nature examine the legacy of Carl Linnaeus, born 300 years ago this May. The wonderful cover illustration shows Carl Linnaeus as a modern field biologist in blue jeans and down vest, holding up a DNA barcode. I am particularly struck by Charles Godfray’s “Linnaeus in the information age,” a wide-ranging, thoughtful, visionary and practical look at how taxonomy might evolve so as to provide the widest benefit to society. His near-term wish list includes “a comprehensive web-based taxonomic and identification resource (morphology plus DNA barcodes) for the world’s macrolepidoptera”, which “would be a wonderful lever for bringing new resources into the field.” A central theme echoed in many of the pieces is the need for taxonomists to join together and create “big science” projects that benefit the many end-users of taxonomic knowledge.