[Narrator: A scientist in Peru [pause for peep] captured this, escaping from the tiny body [pause for peep] of a sleeping hummingbird. [pause for peep] A high-pitched [pause for peep] but unmistakable snore. [pause for peep] Hummingbirds are loved for their beauty and speed [pause for peep] but this one was behaving a little bit like a human. [pause for peep] The perfect cute-response trigger.]
Julius seizure (does NOT interact with cleopatra, unfortunately. Causes seizures)
Cheap Date (increases alcohol sensitivity)
Ken and Barbie (causes loss of external genitalia)
Also, the hox genes, like antennapedia. Not a particularly funny name, but if you mutant antennapedia flys grow legs where their antennae should be.
IT
KEEPS
GETTING
BETTER
Some others fun ones:
The sonic hedgehog gene has a signal inhibitor called robotnikinin.
The halloween genes, a gene complex composed of spook, spookier, shadow, shade, shroud and phantom. Tampering with this one fucks up the exoskeleton development of fruit flies and makes them freaky looking among other things, so the name is apt.
Tinman (mutations prevent the development of a heart, à la the Tin Man from Oz)
Flippase and floppase (a pair of proteins that pass phosphatidylserines back and forth across the outer side of the cell membrane)
MAP kinase, MAP kinase kinase etc. This stacks four times to result in MAP kinase kinase kinase kinase
Mothers against decapentaplegic (represses the decapentaplegic gene in the embryo if it’s mutated in the mother).
Fun fact, there’s a hedgehog gene, and Indian hedgehog gene, and a sonic hedgehog gene
Also, the sonic hedgehog gene has expression that gets messed up my some chemicals (including alcohol) during pregnancy. So this leads to doctors having to explain to patient the something is wrong with their sonic hedgehog gene.
There’s actually a really good reason for these funny names though! Aside from scientists being dorks. Because if you discover a gene that is expressed wrong during cancer, and call it lung cancer gene 1, later on you might discover that it’s normal function is to make brain cells or something. That’s a problem, because it’ll forever bias research into that gene, because people will assume its a cancer gene, rather than playing multiple important roles in different pathways. Funny names, or naming the gene after the phenotype (the physical appearance of individuals with mutations in the gene), avoid this problem!
Naming the gene after the phenotype?
Well… this is what the hedgehog gene does to fruit flies, which is the species it was discovered in.
It. Literally makes the fly larvae look like hedgehogs.
This is why
makes caterpillars floppy is called that! The authors Did A Good And Funny, and more importantly, other scientists aren’t going to look at that gene in the database and assume we already know everything about its function. Other scientists are going to look at that gene and go “floppy lol”.
So what have we learned today? Scientists giving genes funny names and other scientists going “floppy lol” actually serves an important role in keeping scientists from missing crucial research by assuming they know everything already. Every time you think science can’t get any more amazing it… just… does.
(admittedly though, some funny name genes do stand for their functions. Pokemon stands for “POKerythroid myeloid ontogenic factor” and diablo stands for “Direct IAP binding protein, low”.)
I worked with zebra fish and I really enjoyed the Santa Claus, Valentine’s, and heart of glass genes (all mess up heart development), and my absolute favourite - sonic hedgehog only acts on anterior midline seperation in d. rerio, there’s an analogue gene that handles posterior midline separation, and it is called tiggywinkle hedgehog.
as in Mrs Tiggywinkle, the hedgehog from the Beatrix Potter books.
it is very hard to present research findings with a straight face when they include this.
Ok buuuuut…. auto saving as a mechanic has been around for fucking years at this point. Hell even basic side scrollers employ it. Pokemon should have this basic feature of gaming as a part of their rpg by now.
in a game like Pokemon, where you can actually make major mistakes such as killing a completely unique creature wanted to capture, having an egg hatch with less than ideal stats, accidentally using a consumable you wanted to keep, throwing a masterball you wanted to keep for the legendary or something else by accident, entering a rare situation where you just softlocked yourself and other such things
you have to be in control of your ability to save at all times honestly
i’m gonna use my hacking powers to do an all pyjama run in pokemon y
Mission parameters set.
Fuck that noise.
YOU’RE NOT MY REAL MOM
God this is gonna suck when I get to Frost Cavern.
Still holding on tight to that 3DS I don’t have and couldn’t figure out how to get back. Our mom’s probably holding it hostage.
Haha I’m never going back in there in case the game notices I’m not wearing the default outfit and forces me into actual clothes again.
Oh hey, do you want to see how it resolved the issue of not having a full render model?
The short answer is it didn’t.
Every now and then notes for this float past my dash and I’m forcibly reminded that I had to stop because I got trapped behind Nurse Joy’s counter and couldn’t figure out how to leave the Pokémon Center because the camera clipped through the floor into PokéHell.
One of my favorite kinds of discussions are points where people ask rabbis about obscure, impossible stuff and what the law would be regarding these strange situations. What I love about the discussions is that, generally, the rabbi will tackle the problem head-on, as if it were a serious issue, near as I can tell because they find a fundamental satisfaction in grappling with thought experiments. (Which makes sense - they’d have that in common with most clergy I’ve ever met)
So, like,
Fresh fruit is broadly considered inherently kosher. But if a fruit grew from a Bulbasaur - a creature clearly both plant and animal (unlike say Oddish or Bellsprout which are clearly ambulatory plants) - is it possible for that fruit not to be kosher? What would we need to know about the fruit in order for it to be okay? Would we need to be careful about how it’s gathered from the pokemon? Would you be limited in what other foods you could pair with it?
