I am gobsmacked by how little programmers know about the underpinnings of actual human language. This guy sounds like a SoCal 1960s burnout going on about being one with language of the forest.
To be fair there is a disclaimer about the limits of metaphor, plus the article is really about protein folding, not natural language. Still, I'm curious as to which "underpinnings of actual human language" you think he's misunderstanding or misrepresenting?
Actually while it's generally female, it's not always! It depends on the region of Indian continent / ethnic group, as the final "-a" in many Sanskrit-roots may or may not be dropped depending on the modern language of derivation. For example, I know several Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali males named Apoorva/Apurva.
That being said, it does appear that this instance of Apoorva is indeed a female name (and in general, Tamil names like this one don't keep the aforementioned "-a" in the masculine).