this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
1541 points (98.8% liked)

Science Memes

13427 readers
3977 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheEntity 42 points 3 days ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s not from any specific media reference, it’s just essentially what every child was taught, verbatim, in grade school.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] spankmonkey 3 points 3 days ago

Huh, I figured it was Dexter's Lab or some cartoon.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

the meme originated from tumblr. the quote itself is older than color tv.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Well 'meme' is an older idea than image macros =p

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Lol that's like saying a joke originated on the Family Guy

[–] xpinchx 8 points 3 days 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days 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"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days 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?