That footnote on Western blot reminds me of some of my favorite 'inside jokes' in naming of things in biology. My 2 favorites might be in developmental genes.
A segmental polarity gene was discovered in Drosophila and was named 'hedgehog' because when its knocked out the developing organism looks like it has quills of a hedgehog. So when the corresponding gene was found in other animals, it was named 'Sonic' (the video game was still new in popularity at the time).
Also in drosophila (the story of why we know so much about this organism's genetics is to me a great story in how science collaborations should work), the homobox which controls formation of cardiac progenitor cells is called 'tinman' :)
That footnote on Western blot reminds me of some of my favorite 'inside jokes' in naming of things in biology. My 2 favorites might be in developmental genes.
A segmental polarity gene was discovered in Drosophila and was named 'hedgehog' because when its knocked out the developing organism looks like it has quills of a hedgehog. So when the corresponding gene was found in other animals, it was named 'Sonic' (the video game was still new in popularity at the time).
Also in drosophila (the story of why we know so much about this organism's genetics is to me a great story in how science collaborations should work), the homobox which controls formation of cardiac progenitor cells is called 'tinman' :)
So do you brush off the salt at some point?