scientists work their asses off, its nice to have a little fun and make the endless hours all worth it.
puns
Submitted 8 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/76c57ce1-a458-48f9-8101-a3f10ef3c365.jpeg
Comments
Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Not exactly the same but I remember starting my software engineering course and having to remote into the university servers to write code. All the servers were named after Red Dwarf characters. Being a career changer, as soon as I saw the server names I had this calming feeling that I’d finally found my people.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My dad was never at university, but he was a unix admin for ages. his naming conventions for clusters?
Star Wars characters. Red Dwarf Characters. Star trek characters. Asimov’s robots. and apparently, his annoying bosses. (For the troublesome clusters.)
HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
I’ve heard it’s a “pets vs cattle” thing. When you have a small fleet of distinct servers, you name them. When you have a thousand interchangeable boxes, you give them systematic IDs.
Or you scale up to a franchise with a large enough cast. I wonder if anyone uses One Piece character names for servers?
fckreddit@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
To be honest, love the “Ferrous Wheel” pun. It’s too good.
Faresh@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Can you explain it? I don’t get it.
fckreddit@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Ferrous means iron. When they say Ferrous wheel, it means how the iron is stored and used in geology. It is a pun on Ferris Wheel, which is an amusement park ride,
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Google Ferris wheel. The London Eye is an example of a Ferris wheel.
drail@fedia.io 8 months ago
Physics is a mixed bag with this stuff. Gell-Mann came up with the name quarks after a line from Finnegan's Wake because Joyce referenced them as coming in three. It was a nonsense word inserted just to rhyme with Mark, Park, etc, so its pronunciation in physics isn't even correct, but it was fun and physicists were just having a good time with it.
Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he has not got much of a bark
And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.Then we got the strange/charm and top/bottom (which was originally the beauty/truth, so bullet dodged there) so the quarks really got all the fun names.
Neutrinos (my field of study), had so much potential for fun, stupid naming that was squandered. The neutrino was originally proposed with the name "neutron" by Pauli, but then the actual neutron was discovered and observed first, so the name got pinched. To remedy this, the electron neutrino was dubbed "neutrino" or little neutron (they didn't know that other flavors of neutrino existed). Meanwhile, the muon neutrino was originally supposed to be the neutretto (before they realized that the neutral leptons were related by the different particle generations), so we could have had a world where each generation of neutral lepton was just another combination of neutron + diminutive italian suffix.
- Neutrino
- Neutretto/neutronetto
- Neutrello/neutronello
Then, when the mass eigenstates were confirmed, we could have diversified and gone with big suffixes to indicate that neutrinos have mass.
- Neutroni
- Neutrachione/neutronachione
- Neutrozzo/neutronozzo
But noooooo, particle physics decided to just give neutrinos the lamest possible names, electron/muon/tau neutrinos for flavor states and m_1/m_2/m_3 neutrino for mass states. I am ashamed of my predecessors for what they've done.
Don't even get me started on the J/Psi debacle...
crapwittyname@lemm.ee 8 months ago
The time derivative of position is velocity. The derivative of velocity is acceleration. Derive again and you get jerk. Then it’s snap, crackle and pop.
(For those too young, these are the names of those characters they use to sell Rice Krispies)
criitz@reddthat.com 8 months ago
TIL I’ve pronounced quark wrong my whole life (rhyming with park).
Though I’ve heard it done that way elsewhere - perhaps it is also considered acceptable at this point.
XTL@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
You need it to make the quantum duck joke. Quark quark.
drail@fedia.io 8 months ago
Gell-Mann said it sounds like "quart", Joyce rhymed it with Park, it is a silly word and the pronunciation is as fluid as you desire.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Chromodynamics just uses colors, but makes up for that simplicity by introducing anti-colors.
Neutrello
That sounds delicious.
drail@fedia.io 8 months ago
Neutrello sounds good, but it is actually pretty...
weak
Rimshot, crowd moans
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wait, how is “quark” supposed to be pronounced? Not like the Star Trek character or the German cheese?
TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I pronounce it with the a sound I’d use in “warp”.
drail@fedia.io 8 months ago
In physics- Like "quart" with a k
In the Joyce novel- rhymes with park.
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 8 months ago
So… It seems that you feel let down by your predecessors in physics’ inability to tell the future… Hunh. Odd, that.
can@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
#transcription
fuckingflying
I hate linguistic anthropology. Why? One of the most influential experiments in linguistic anthropology involved teaching a chimp asl. One of the most influential linguisti cs is named Noam Chomsky. You know what the chimp’s name was?
Nim Chimpsky.
Fucking monkey pun.
And this is in textbooks, in documentaries, everywhere. And everyone just IGNORES THIS GOD AWFUL PUN cause of how important the experiment was. But BUT LOOK AT THIS SHIT. FUCKING NIM CHIMPSKY. I HATE THIS WHOLE FIELD.
dendritic-trees
Its not just the linguistic anthropologists.There’s a group of very important genes that determine if your body develops in the right shape/organization… they are called the hedgehog genes, because fruit fly geneticists are all ridiculous. The different hedgehog genes are all named after different hedgehogs. And then someone decided to get clever and name one "sonic hedgehog’ because this is just what fruitfly geneticists do.
Well sonic hedgehog controls brain development, and now actual doctors are stuck in the position of explaining to grieving parents that their child’s lethal birth defects or life-threatening tumors are caused by a “sonic hedgehog mutation”.
And this is why no one will invite the fruit fly people to parties.
error-404-fuck-not-found
Biogeochemical scientists, upon discovering the complex mechanisms that govern the storage and use of molecular iron on our planet, decided to call this cycle “the ferrous wheel”. We groaned about that for at least five solid minutes.callmegallifreya
The phenomenon of sneezing when exposed to sudden bright light is called an Autosomal-dominant Compelling Helio Opthalmic Outburst. ACHO0. Half a byte of data is a nibble.adenoid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The predicted outcomes of sinus surgery for chronic rhinosinusitis may use the SNOT scale (sinonasal outcome test)
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Relevant username. Also wow sinonasal is hard to read correctly, I got sinusoidal a few times
reev@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I’ll just leave this here
Jilanico@lemmy.world 8 months ago
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 8 months ago
To be fair, that was coined by Larson and then adopted by the scientists, whereas the previous examples were coined by those in the field, specifically.
ken_cleanairsystems@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
My favorite.
Zargag@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
These are hilarious. I NEED MORE!
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
there is a species of mushrooms named Spongiforma Squarepantsii.
there is a beetle named Agra vation
a spider named Apopyllus now
apparently, a sea slug Yoda purpurata. (but I don’t see the resemblance.)
and a waterbug named Ytu Brutus,
(compliments to ChatGPT…lol)
jerrythegenius@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Same lol
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 8 months ago
there’s also a protein involved in visual signals in the brain named Pikachurin,
there’s a wasp in austrialia named Aha ha,
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Fun fact (not really) about Nim: he and the other ASL chimps were HORRIBLY abused. Basically every single one of them.
And it was all for nothing, not a single bit of evidence shows that teaching chimps ASL worked and allowed any form of actual communication.
Yes, even Koko.
Dasus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Well, communication is definitely shown.
But… “speech”, “language”, “sentient thought”? That’s the subjective bit, imo. Communication is easy.
Monzcarro@feddit.uk 8 months ago
There is also a good You’re Wrong About podcast episode on this.
Daft_ish@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Half a byte being a nibble is too cute to hate.
VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There was an early trend of giving tech stuff fantasy terms, too. Programs that do something for the user being wizards and programs that do things when triggered being daemons, for instance.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Player characters and profile pictures are called “avatars” after Hindu mythology. It is the physical embodiment of a divine being on a lesser plane.
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Meanwhile, in immunology:
“Can we have fun names?”
“NO! Now shut up and keep isolating proteins and cell markers!”
stelelor@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
The stupid terminology in immunology made me hate it so much, even though the actual mechanics are fascinating. At some point my brain just reached saturation with all the CD proteins. Enough is enough!!!
TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
1/4 of a byte, or half of a nibble, is a crumb.
bizzle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Thanks for giving us your two bits
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ha! 🤓
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Hahaha, I’ve assumed it was just computer-science dorks, but maybe the urge to pick stupid names is intrinsic to all science dorks.
I dunno if any of the “soft sciences” will get this, but naming things is in NP-hard.
Dave@lemmy.nz 8 months ago
After looking this up, TIL that Knuckles is an echidna. I had no idea!
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, that’s probably why they called him “Knuckles the Echidna.”
Dave@lemmy.nz 8 months ago
I don’t remember ever playing any of the early games, but I can only ever remember him being referred to as “Knuckles”, as in “Sonic and Knuckles”. I guess I was just a little too far removed from the game to ever follow the characters.
Greens@beehaw.org 8 months ago
Interesting fact: Echidnas, like platypus, have no stomach.
smeg@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Wait til you find out about their penises!
xkforce@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not just hedgehog, there’s one called Sonic Hedgehog…
And there’s an enzyme called Fuculokinase sometimes abbreviated “Fuck” in the literature because some of us are still 12 years old.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yes, that’s what the image text says
EffortlessEffluvium@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It’s a nybble…
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Nope.
XTL@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Yes. Two nibbles make a bite. Two nybbles make a byte.
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 8 months ago
www.catb.org/jargon/html/N/nybble.html
Worth noting that at the time of documentation a half-byte was a nybble, and the more mundane spelling came along later
roguetrick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I appreciate that some fucking guy recorded himself reading that goddamn article.
FilterItOut@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
Meanwhile psychologists just name things as exactly blandly as they can. There’s a neat phenomenon where a relationship can immediately be viewed as deeper and more connected, merely by one of the individuals sharing deeply personal information. It even works at the very first interaction. In other words, if someone tends to overshare, or blurt out info about themselves, we measure their blirtasiousness and its effect on relationships. Not even kidding. I think the folks who came up with it were Scottish, which is why the blirt rather than blurt.
TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 8 months ago
AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I studied physics, not engineering, in undergrad, so I knew about the joke, but I didn’t realize that snap was actually used in some cases. That’s really interesting!
Akasazh@feddit.nl 8 months ago
That might just be Kelloggs product placement, for all we know. /S
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 8 months ago
C++ is just the next iteration of C. C# is just another layer of iteration on top of C++. Flags are simple indicators for programs, usually set by a controlling human/system, semaphores are flags that communicate between processes.
Yaztromo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
C++ is just the next iteration of C.
This is somewhat clever when you know that the ‘++’ operator is the post-increment operator in C.
C# is just another layer of iteration on top of C++.
…except there is no ‘#’ operator in C or C++, so any interesting self-referential pattern breaks down here. The ‘#’ comes from musical notation, where a ‘#’ (sharp) note is played a semitone higher — and was chosen more for marketing purposes rather than scientists having an inside joke.
You could have also mentioned ‘D’, which is another “next iteration of C” independent of C++.
fibrechips@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The # is actually two “++” stacked on top of one another
WeirdAlex03@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
The C programming language also descends from the B programming language (though B’s lineage unfortunately goes to BCPL, not A)
Auk@kbin.social 8 months ago
except there is no ‘#’ operator in C or C++, so any interesting self-referential pattern breaks down here
is two layers of ++, so the pattern is there. Whether that was originally intended or coincidence is another matter, but it works well enough that I suspect it was considered when picking names.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
I’ve learnt about byte/nibble over 30 years ago and just now got the pun.
WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Been in a lab meeting (biochemists) with a group who were naming a new method they made. They started with the acronym and decided what it would stand for second.
Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 8 months ago
17, 18, and 19 on the periodic table spell out ClArK, guess what’s below 18. Krypton. I can’t remember which one came first, but superman is baked into the periodic table now. :/
BreadOven@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There’s always NMR scientists. Proton-Enhanced Nuclear Induction Spectroscopy.
Also one paper that was talking about copper nanotubes (NT). So it was shortened to CuNT. I think that paper may have been oblivious to it though?
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Maybe they were Australian.
Magnetar@feddit.de 8 months ago
In quantum mechanics, there are types of vectors that are written like |a>, which is called a “ket”, and their dual vectors as <a|, which are called “bra”. You write the scalar product as <a|b>. This is called the Bra-Ket-Notation.
ShamanSpiff@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I got bits and bytes mixed up for a minute, and was trying to figure out how the heck you have a boolean
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
You never met my ex. She was the queen of half-truths.
XTL@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
And you’re right because the commenter couldn’t spell nybble.
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 8 months ago
So, you’re like super-ancestor to the famous Spaceman? 😱
VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I looked it up and yep it’s all true.
rtxn@lemmy.world 8 months ago
One does not simply walk into Mordor. One has to build a spacecraft because even the eagles can’t fly there.
SadSadSatellite@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
There’s a type of bacteria that infects caterpillars and produces a toxin that makes them lose all rigidity. The toxin is called MCF.
MCF stand for Makes Caterpillars Floppy
DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 8 months ago
That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
oh man you really don’t want a flaccid caterpillar, total mood killer
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, if the mood called for that wavy, reach-for-the-sky dance that caterpillars do. On the other hand, if the mood called for a thick, rigid caterpillar, throbbing with pent-up intention, you might want to reconsider the parties you attend.