this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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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.
I feel like the leading "the" is what's messing that up.
"Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell" sounds fine to me.
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I refer to one piece of broccoli as a ~~broccolus~~ broccolo.
Except its Italian, not Latin, so the singular is broccolo . If you want to use the Latin word,.it's broccus
I feel like Broccus would be a badass name for a dog.
I have one die which gives one datum at a time.
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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".
The power generating stations near me are still called Power houses.
Power plant🌱
Yes, that's the word that everyone uses for the large generating stations that create power on a large scale like a manufacturing plant creates goods on a large scale.
Its rare for us to have "power houses" now, and when we do no one calls them that.
Mitochondria is the solar farm of the cell.
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Can we take a step back and just appreciate how good Bluey is?
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Challenging but accessible
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Inclusive
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Emotional depth
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Grounded
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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)
Take another moment to realize how shit Paw Patrol is.
- Not challenging, has clear cut good/bad dynamic. Bluey doesn't have "bad guys"
- PP is fairly inclusive.
- Almost not emotional depth, everyone is always in a good mood.
- Started off fairly grounded, but then power scaling for no reason.
- Repetitive and boring.
- What the fuck is up with dogs being intelligent enough to do the PP things, but also being subservient to humans? The whole dynamic is so fucked, Bluey doesn't have humans at all.
I only compare them because the are both dog based kids shows. But PP sucks
I almost added "Not ADHD bait" as a positive for Bluey and calling out Paw Patrol specifically but wanted to be more positive lmao
Truely a turd of a show.
It's really amazing. The only (not really) downside is that certain episodes make me tear up.
You will also have to enslessly play the games they're playing.
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Such a great show. That Sleepytime episode always ruins me though. About how kids need their parents less and less as time goes on and they become more independent, fuuuuck.
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
It's mental how this is pretty much known worldwide, like drawing that S thing. The one similar to the Suzuki logo
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.
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
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The S was known worldwide pre internet though. Was the powerhouse line?
They are both universal knowledge passed down through generations
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
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What's with americans and mitochondria ?
The phrase "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" was coined in a 1957 article by biologist Philip Siekevitz. It apparently rattled around in the English lexicon until 2013, when a tumblr user by the handle apatheticghost posted the following:
what I learned in school
I am a fucking piece of shit
everybody else is also a piece of shit
mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
This blew up in popularity and variations emerged that replaced the first two items with various social commentary, but always kept the mitochondria line. It stood for a kind of universal frustration students have with school, that a lot of the curriculum feels like memorizing game show trivia answers rather than useful or practical skills applicable to adult life. Loads of us have no idea how the tax system works but we can all parrot biology factoids.
The phrase became one of those catchphrase in-jokes. A bit like how you can't say 69 without saying "nice" anymore.
My on personal Mandela Effect: I'd swear I'm from the parallel universe where the phrase comes from the Bill Nye The Science Guy theme song, but apparently I'm thinking of "Inertia is a property of matter."
Thanks for the detailed answer !
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"
Mitochondria are cool and important.
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.
Compound interest.
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
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.
Reread my comment, I ALSO wanted to learn info more useful to every day life. I never said instead of.
Grew up in Asia. Only moved to the US for undergrad... And this applies. So it's not just the Americans methinks.
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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.
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.
This has got to be the funniest summary of A Wind in the Door
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins
Inertia is a property of matter
Same here in Germany - immediately came to my mind!
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