Funny names and terms
LabRat529
Posts: 1,323 Member
So... we all know that scientists are dweebs with weird senses of humor. I personally get a kick out of some of the strange names given to proteins or genes or whatever. I thought it would be fun to post about terms that amuse us. I'll start with one I just came in contact with:
Fractalkine
Apparently Fractalkine is a cytokine involved in microglia signaling (microglia are the immune cells of the brain). I don't know why they call it Fractalkine. But someone was smokin' something when they named it
Fractalkine
Apparently Fractalkine is a cytokine involved in microglia signaling (microglia are the immune cells of the brain). I don't know why they call it Fractalkine. But someone was smokin' something when they named it
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How about idotea wosnesenskii, it's a tiny marine isopod, such a long polish sounding name (actually strung together latin) for an organism 1/2 inch long. I am constantly amazed by huge names hung on small organisms, especially since they usually contain the name of the person who discovered it.0
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How about idotea wosnesenskii, it's a tiny marine isopod, such a long polish sounding name (actually strung together latin) for an organism 1/2 inch long. I am constantly amazed by huge names hung on small organisms, especially since they usually contain the name of the person who discovered it.
I like it! I think I might name my next pet Wosnesenskii. Of course... I'd have to figure out how to pronounce it.
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Wobble position - the 3rd base in a codon that doesn't necessarily follow the rules of base pairing0
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Then there's the Hox and Sox genes and the Cox inhibitors0
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Then there's the Hox and Sox genes and the Cox inhibitors
There's a COX enzyme too... a couple of them... which is what the inhibitors are inhibiting.
/love these names.
I'll add another: Frizzled. Who the heck names a protein Frizzled? It's one of those damned fly guys >.> They get all the fun. (Frizzled is a protein involved in embryonic development... found by studying fruit flies. I forget what it does. But it's got a cool name)0 -
So... we all know that scientists are dweebs with weird senses of humor. I personally get a kick out of some of the strange names given to proteins or genes or whatever. I thought it would be fun to post about terms that amuse us. I'll start with one I just came in contact with:
Fractalkine
Apparently Fractalkine is a cytokine involved in microglia signaling (microglia are the immune cells of the brain). I don't know why they call it Fractalkine. But someone was smokin' something when they named it
Hehe, well, I recognized "fractal" in that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal) and then did some googling... apparently fractalkine was named for its fractal-like geometry... of course, I couldn't find an actual photo of it. I don't really know what a cytokine is or if you can have photos of it, though. But someone must've seem some sort of fractal in it! ...or perhaps that was aided by whatever they were smoking. :smokin:
One thing that springs to mind in physics/astronomy that I find amusing is how when we discover evidence for something, but have no idea what it "is," we slap the word "dark" in front of it and call it a day. Hahah okay, maybe not quite call it a day, but... dark matter? Dark energy? It's funny because dark matter isn't "dark" at all, in the sense that we're used to the word - it actually has to be virtually transparent! Only our knowledge of it is "dark."
Also, there are all sorts of ridiculous acronyms. Like "WIMPs" (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) and "MACHOs" (Massive Compact Halo Object).
Oh, and the types of quarks (fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons) are just weird: up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm. Seriously.0 -
Then there's the Hox and Sox genes and the Cox inhibitors
There's a COX enzyme too... a couple of them... which is what the inhibitors are inhibiting.
...I have the sense of humour of a 13-year-old boy. I don't know if I could talk about that without giggling constantly.0 -
Then there's the Hox and Sox genes and the Cox inhibitors
There's a COX enzyme too... a couple of them... which is what the inhibitors are inhibiting.
...I have the sense of humour of a 13-year-old boy. I don't know if I could talk about that without giggling constantly.
I think a lot of us might have the humour of a 13 year old boy. Man. And people are counting on us scientist to make the world a better place. We're doomed 0 -
Hehe, well, I recognized "fractal" in that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal) and then did some googling... apparently fractalkine was named for its fractal-like geometry... of course, I couldn't find an actual photo of it. I don't really know what a cytokine is or if you can have photos of it, though. But someone must've seem some sort of fractal in it! ...or perhaps that was aided by whatever they were smoking. :smokin:
One thing that springs to mind in physics/astronomy that I find amusing is how when we discover evidence for something, but have no idea what it "is," we slap the word "dark" in front of it and call it a day. Hahah okay, maybe not quite call it a day, but... dark matter? Dark energy? It's funny because dark matter isn't "dark" at all, in the sense that we're used to the word - it actually has to be virtually transparent! Only our knowledge of it is "dark."
Cytokines are signaling molecules, usually proteins, peptides, or glycoproteins, that are released from cells to communicate with other cells. They are often used to recruit immune cells to a specific site in the body.
You can sorta-kinda visualize the structure of a protein with x-ray de-fraction. In fact, maybe that's where the name 'fractal' came from... perhaps the protein was crystalized and it caused a rather unique pattern of defracted x-ray beams. Who knows!
I like the "dark" thing. I wonder if I can hijack that term and apply it to neuroscience somehow. *ponders*0 -
I love "flippases" and "floppases" which flip lipid molecules in biological membranes (flippase turns them one way and floppase turns them the other way). There are also "scramblases" which can do either direction!
Geneticists are ridiculous too, naming genes "fruitless", "dumpy", "sonic hedgehog" etc. (usually in Drosophila)
Yeast have DNA replication origins named "ARSes", which are pronounced as expected, which make lectures more amusing at least...0 -
Oh, and of course:
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Oh, and of course:
/dies
I love it. I'm gonna have to print that one out and paste it up on my wall at work.0 -
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...I have the sense of humour of a 13-year-old boy. I don't know if I could talk about that without giggling constantly.
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I think a lot of us might have the humour of a 13 year old boy. Man. And people are counting on us scientist to make the world a better place. We're doomed
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My students always giggle when I have to talk about orogenous zones in my paleontology classes. There is a whole Facebook page devoted to geological terms that sound naughty!0 -
Oops, clearly deleted the quote lines around the first two parts. Sorry!0
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I was doing some reading last night and was reminded of a couple other funny astronomy terms:
"Galaxy strangulation" (this is when a galaxy falls into a cluster environment and tidal forces strip the gas from the galaxy - stars need gas to form, so this process halts star formation, thereby "strangling" the galaxy).
"Galaxy harassment" (this is when one galaxy does a high-speed fly-by around another galaxy and disrupts the other galaxy, giving it warps or bars or tidal tails, etc.)
Also, "ram pressure stripping" makes me giggle, probably because it has both the words "ram" and "stripping" in it. (That's when the hot X-ray gas in a cluster acts as a "wind" when a galaxy is moving through the cluster, and it acts to tear away the gas in that galaxy.)
Galaxy clusters are very violent places!0 -
I love these, thanks. And the penguinone.I was doing some reading last night and was reminded of a couple other funny astronomy terms:
"Galaxy strangulation" (this is when a galaxy falls into a cluster environment and tidal forces strip the gas from the galaxy - stars need gas to form, so this process halts star formation, thereby "strangling" the galaxy).
"Galaxy harassment" (this is when one galaxy does a high-speed fly-by around another galaxy and disrupts the other galaxy, giving it warps or bars or tidal tails, etc.)
Also, "ram pressure stripping" makes me giggle, probably because it has both the words "ram" and "stripping" in it. (That's when the hot X-ray gas in a cluster acts as a "wind" when a galaxy is moving through the cluster, and it acts to tear away the gas in that galaxy.)
Galaxy clusters are very violent places!0 -
Love all of them! MORE! 0
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P.S. I think I just feel deprived because I'm working with things called Calcium and Calmodulin Dependent Protein Kinase II or Neprilysin. How lame are those names? Totally boring
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So... we all know that scientists are dweebs with weird senses of humor. I personally get a kick out of some of the strange names given to proteins or genes or whatever. I thought it would be fun to post about terms that amuse us. I'll start with one I just came in contact with:
Fractalkine
Apparently Fractalkine is a cytokine involved in microglia signaling (microglia are the immune cells of the brain). I don't know why they call it Fractalkine. But someone was smokin' something when they named it
Come on. You haven't heard of Joe Fractal? ;P0 -
Also, the Hedgehog receptor...and arsole (an arsenic-based ring structure). Gotta keep a 12-year-old sense of humor when you work in the lab 7 days a week... =P0
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Also, the Hedgehog receptor...and arsole (an arsenic-based ring structure). Gotta keep a 12-year-old sense of humor when you work in the lab 7 days a week... =P
That ARSOLE! (Totally using that in real life. Just watch me.)0
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