Scientists are a bunch of nerds: Ed Southern invented a method for probing for DNA separated by gel electrophoresis: a 'Southern blot'. So when a method was developed for probing *RNA*, they called it a "northern blot". Similar jokers named a protein blot a "western blot".
tf I have been trolled by the biologists for YEARS now
My favorite dorky scientific nomenclature is the story of hedgehog and sonic hedgehog. 🧪 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_h...
I love the people who name Drosophila genes. A cytoskeletal mutant that prevents nuclei binding to the syncytial outer membrane, so they fall into the middle before cellularization? … Nuclear fallout.
In Eastern Europe, they have the Soviet Blot
A labmate once told me that in a previous lab, he and his friends tried to convince a newby that their labmate Nick invented nick translation.
The Northern Blot is the single worst assay "developed" (if you can call it that) by biologists.
Don't venture into fruit fly genes...
This reminds me of recursive software acronyms like "GNU's Not Unix".
Hence my perpetual, obsessive correction of people who capitalize western blot…