From Australia to Afghanistan, Zambia to New Zealand the world measures in metric. Except that is, for Liberia, Burma and, of course, the world's scientific leader, the United States of America. Why, we are often asked?
Since this involves a famous botanist, we are happy to explain. And for those of you who have no interest in botanists, also involved are pirates, politicians and republicans (French this time). But we are getting ahead of ourselves.