• Question: Do you ever reckon that the huge amount of terminology related to biological studies is frustrating?

    Asked by lolmartsecurity to Amy on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Yes!!! There are so many acronyms and so many names for the same thing! I was discussing yesterday with colleagues in the office about naming discoveries and asked if I found a new cell type would I just be allowed to call it “Bernard” or “Geoff” or something – but I don’t think thats allowed!

      A lot of science terminology is quite dated…or based on new discoveries has been found to be incorrect. Some proteins were named because they do certain things which now they have been found not to do (or is not their main purpose as we understand it) – this has caused a whole lot of reshuffle with people trying to re-name things in a more standard way…but some people stick to the old names and this can be completely confusing!!

      So yes, it is frustrating. One protein I particularly like is JAK – this was named JAK because it was “just another kinase” …but they have since decided its “janus-activating-kinase” because that makes it sound more credible!!

      Does it frustrate you? it sure makes things tough to learn! 🙂

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