Last person just decided to make something up, huh?
puns
Submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/76c57ce1-a458-48f9-8101-a3f10ef3c365.jpeg
Comments
Electric_Druid@lemmy.world 7 months ago
littlebluespark@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Par for the course, really. In each one of those instances, the same thing happened: the last one made shit up and it stuck.
nednobbins@lemm.ee 7 months ago
People are really awful at naming things.
Some German nerd thought it was cool while they discovered some new receptor so they called it “toll” (German for cool/awesome). Computer science is full of names that are kind of funny if you already know the particular area but are total gibberish if you’re trying learn it. We’re not even good at naming humans. The default is to either pick one of the names that’s common in your culture. When people deviate from that you get a huge number of “special” names.
We need to put this in the hands of experts. I’m gonna propose a new field, “nameology”. Those folks will do a bunch of research into names that make sense. How do we best name things so they completely and unambiguously label them in a way that’s easy to remember and use. Then they can run around and give non stupid names to all the things.
SpeakerToLampposts@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Hmm, I think we should start referring to the toll-like receptors as the awesome-ish receptors.
Another example: there’s a fruit-fly gene named decapentaplegic (which has to do with forming the 15 imaginal discs during embryonic development). When they discovered another gene that interfered with it, but only when inherited from the mother, they named that one “mothers against decapentaplegic”.
SolarMech@slrpnk.net 7 months ago
Now I want to become a scientist so I can name something after a pun.
KoboldKomrade@hexbear.net 7 months ago
I don’t know whats worse: Scientists naming everything unpronounceable unspellable Latin, naming things after people, or naming things jokes. Just name it what it fucking does in a language someone actually uses jerks.
MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 6 months ago
I joked to a coworker yesterday that they should name new materials they make after stupid pop culture references because the regulations for naming new things in our field are obtuse.
I may have implied that if it worked for biochemists, Sonic the Hedgehog would work for us too. Next time, I’ll suggest we name it something even dumber in Vietnamese or Arabic.