• drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    12 hours ago

    What’s interesting to me about that phrase is that no one uses the word “powerhouse” for anything else any more, except maybe to call something powerful.

    Since it’s not the 1920s any more and we have an electrical grid and centralized power generation. We still sometimes do use temporary off-grid generators, but we no longer have any need for a dedicated word that means “building or shed that we keep our generators in”.

  • rainrain@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    There’s this book. Sequel to Wrinkle in Time i think. Where this kid brings up the subject of mitochondria in class. Gets pummeled for it.

  • Yoga@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    Can we take a step back and just appreciate how good Bluey is?

    1. Challenging but accessible

    2. Inclusive

    3. Emotional depth

    4. Grounded

    5. Not disgusting annoying

    I really appreciate when kids shows are made with parents/guardians in mind (ie will watching the same episode 50 times make you want to off yourself or not)

    • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      It is really nice to have a children’s TV show that doesn’t scream the title and characters’ names at us over and over, mainly to make sure we remember to buy merchandise

      • Geobloke@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        I haven’t actually been able to watch the special episode properly because my wife and daughters are too busy crying. I do love how stripe is kicked out of the bushes by Wendy

  • frigidaphelion@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    Lmao I was watching an episode of ST: Voyager the other day and a little girl learning about mitochondria said they were the “warp core of the cell”. That phrase is ridiculously pervasive

    • affenlehrer@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

      I don’t know. Wouldn’t that mean cells could violently explode and cause a chain reaction if nearby cells exploding as well?

  • Signtist@lemm.ee
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    18 hours ago

    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.

    • SabinStargem@lemmings.world
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      11 hours ago

      Our politicians of a Sithian persuasion want to use Force Lightning on their enemies and subjects. Sadly(?), mitochondria are not quite the same as midi-chlorians.

    • ScrooLewse@lemmy.myserv.one
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      13 hours ago

      It’s been so ubiquitous for so long that I honestly don’t know where it came from. But most of the time when I hear “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” it’s being used to take a jab at how impractical our education system is, as though to say, “instead of teaching me about X, they taught me about the mitochondria”

        • Default_Defect@midwest.social
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          11 hours ago

          But I’d like to have learned actual practical information as well. Not once has mitochondria come up other than as a meme, but knowing how local and national government works might have been more useful. If it wasn’t on the state standardized test, it wasn’t taught at my schools.

            • JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              Finances are taught poorly everywhere tbf. I was lucky with my precalculus teacher being a huge finance nerd, she spent at least 3 separate full class sessions going over credit cards and loans completely unrelated to our content at the time

          • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe
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            11 hours ago

            Understanding the building blocks of life is very important. This is the foundation of how your body processes energy. If you want to lose weight, for example, you should understand respiration.

    • NewAgeOldPerson@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Grew up in Asia. Only moved to the US for undergrad… And this applies. So it’s not just the Americans methinks.

      • Owl@mander.xyz
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        11 hours ago

        That’s interesting

        We don’t have that where I live, sure we had to learn the organelles of a cell, but there was no über-focusing on the mitochondria.

        (Btw I didn’t know about “methinks”. Learned a new word, thanks !)

        • ewo@lemmy.sdf.org
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          11 hours ago

          Methinks you have to use the phrase, “methinks” more often!

  • blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    20 hours ago

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

    • TheEntity@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      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.

      • Sirence@feddit.org
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        12 hours ago

        We actually had the same sentence as the headline for the chapter about mitochondria in our class in the late 90s, just translated. “Mitochondrien - das Kraftwerk der Zelle”

      • xpinchx@lemmy.world
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        17 hours 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.

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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        19 hours ago

        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

        • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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          17 hours ago

          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.

      • Rob Bos@lemmy.ca
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        19 hours ago

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

      • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        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.

        • bleistift2@sopuli.xyz
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          7 hours ago

          “And the mitochondria”

          “Is the power house of the cell”

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

          Where the hell is the rhyme in this?

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      20 hours ago

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

    • biscuit@lemdro.id
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      19 hours ago

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

    • Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml
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      17 hours ago

      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

      • FrChazzz@lemm.ee
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        12 hours ago

        I came here to say the same as well! Every time I see the word mitochondria I immediately return to fighting that T-Rex and those awesome green weapon range domes. What an excellent game.