this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Its so ubiquitous that LLMs will always say it like that when it comes up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I learned about mitochondria from Parasite Eve. Damn I wish they'd remake that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

came here to say this. hopefully they don't become sentient and destroy the island of manhattan... or maybe it's not a bad idea afterall

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Inertia is a property of matter

[–] [email protected] 118 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It was ruined for me when I was getting my masters in genetics and learned that "mitochondria" is plural, and the singular is "mitochondrion." So, it's either "the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell" or "the mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell," and neither feel right.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I refer to one piece of broccoli as a ~~broccolus~~ broccolo.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why have you done this to us?!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

A grammatical error in a translation from a foreign galactic basic to English is what ruined the force for you? Lol. If we can believe in defying gravity, I think we can believe "The iceburgs is the ship's fear."

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I feel like the leading "the" is what's messing that up.

"Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell" sounds fine to me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

*powerhouses might be better(it sounds better for me)

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

I constantly struggle with what's proper and what sounds right when using Latin plural in English.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Damn, I haven't thought about that 90's Sabrina show since, well.. the 90's!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Why does everyone know this, but still think the definition of "metabolism" is solely built towards fake weight loss regiments? Bit of a tangent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The oft repeated line is grammatically incorrect.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

thankfully grammar isnt science

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No, but in other examples, incorrect grammar can make a statement scientifically incorrect.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

this is why science is written with lots of care and they use Latin words and phrases that cannot be misunderstood

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

the mitochondria is the energy center of the cell

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

M I L P O O L

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

She's mighty-mighty, just lettin' it all hang out

[–] [email protected] 95 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's mental how this is pretty much known worldwide, like drawing that S thing. The one similar to the Suzuki logo

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (5 children)

As a non-native English speaker, I still have no idea why this specific phrase is so significant and at this point I'm afraid to ask.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I think it's just the most simplified you can get talking about cellular biology, specifically when teaching organelles. So most primary science textbooks use that terminology and it's more memorable than all the other organelles so it just stuck and it got repeated and reviewed every year and it sorta became a pre Internet meme and part of a shared consciousness if you were schooled in the US.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

6th grade biology class in the United States, 2001 AD.

The teacher slaps up a diagram of a cell and organelles.

30-45 children all looking around the room, not exactly paying attention

She points to the various organelles, trying to explain their purpose, the golgi complex, ribosomes..

"And the mitochondria"

"Is the power house of the cell"

Children cheer in applause and repeat it, because it rhymes.

It then enters the collective unconscious of English speakers.

I was in the room where it happened.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I was born in the 1970's and it is lost on me too, I think its something that became a thing to the generation after me

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I took biology in 1996; it wasn't a thing yet. Someone else claimed it was already widespread by 2001. I don't think I encountered it in the wild before 2005, but it could have been much later than that.

KnowYourMeme suggests the phrase originated in a textbook from 1957, but it didn't reach memehood until 2014.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I think it comes from an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and exploded as a meme.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

the meme originated from tumblr. the quote itself is older than color tv.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Lol that's like saying a joke originated on the Family Guy

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s not from any specific media reference, it’s just essentially what every child was taught, verbatim, in grade school.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Huh, I figured it was Dexter's Lab or some cartoon.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The S was known worldwide pre internet though. Was the powerhouse line?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They are both universal knowledge passed down through generations

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

...maternally via mitochondrial DNA

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

we are the self-preservation society.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The exact origin of the symbol (cool S) is unclear; however, it is generally considered to be an artifact of childlore, meaning that it is taught by children to children over the course of generations.

TIL
Cool S wiki

Childlore

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