this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
397 points (94.6% liked)

Science Memes

10818 readers
2528 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Like today's computer scientists, early biologists sucked at inventing new words, and simply reused existing ones. "Berry" in common language is a small, usually sweet and edible, fruit. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are all berries.

Then biologists came along and decided, actually, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are out, but watermelon and bananas are in, because the size of the fruit doesn't matter, only the placement of the seeds decides whether something is a proper, scientific berry.

A similar thing has happened with "fruit" and "vegetable", where scientific fruits include cucumbers, eggplants, and pumpkins. Luckily, all three of these are also berries.

I say we ignore them, and use words to mean sensible things.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

i prefer to classify all of what you said as simply "food"

simple yet accurate. I'm a scientist now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

simple yet accurate

this describes engineers more in my experience. science embraces the chaos of discovery. engineers just want to make fruit salad.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

If a new berry was invented, computer scientists will probably call them "βerries", next one "ϐerries" (cursive beta)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Pronounced "cherries"

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

Or we move on with our lives and accept that fruit don't have to be sweet and vegetables don't have to be savory. Life is beautiful and nature constantly challenges expectations.