#I need to dissect and study their dynamic under a microscope

[creantzy]

Defying God - a parallel between Fyolai and Stavrovensky

The Demons brainrot is taking over, and you know what happens when I acquire a new interest: my brain WILL find a way to connect it to my other interests, whether I like it or not!! And this is essentially what it's about xD I've come here to present a parallel I found between Fyolai (Fyodor & Nikolai from BSD) and Stavrovensky (Verkhovensky & Stavrogin from "Demons" by Dostoevsky). Before I start I want to clarify a few things:

• I don't think these two pairings are similar, I just love picking up any crumbs of connections I can find between my interests, even if it'd count as reaching.

• This interpretation (in either character's case) is in no way "the only true way of looking at it". It's merely one interpretation out of many and I chose to focus on just a few aspects out of the many others there are to explore in these complex characters. 

• Feel free to add onto or disagree with anything I say! I'm interested in your thoughts :D

WARNING: There will be spoilers for Bungou Stray Dogs and Demons.

The reason Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor is because he feels affection for him. Emotions are a prison to him, and he basically seeks the opposite of what his emotions make him want to do. Thus, in the face of affection, which makes you want to be closer and wish the best for your friend, he does the opposite and decides to kill said friend, going directly against his feelings in an attempt to prove free will. But here I want to focus more on the "You want to defy God in order to lose sight of yourself" part, specifically the bit about God.

One part of my interpretation is that Nikolai associates God with control. If there is a God who controls all, how can there be a free will? He wants to go against Him and His creations (the human mind, morality, etc.) to prove that it's possible. But God is very abstract - the idea of God is influential but varies depending on cultures, etc. For this point, I'll use the example of the biblical God, or, more specifically, some attributes commonly assigned to the idea of God:

• omnipotence (all-powerful)

• omnipresence (all-present)

• omniscience (all-knowing)

What I am leading up to is the fact that these traits can, in one way or another, be applied to Fyodor. Fyodor's character represents everything Nikolai wants to defy. Nikolai hates control; he wants to fight the idea of God and prove the possibility of complete independence. Fyodor (though not in a "direct" way) could be seen as a symbol for God. He knows everything, he is always present (metaphorically and sometimes literally, the way he spawns sometimes I swear-), and he seems to control everything. Only few people actually see him, but he pulls the strings behind the scenes, and his power is felt everywhere. For Nikolai, to kill Fyodor is not just a protest against his feelings of affection, but can also be a symbolic act of defying "God", of killing "God", by killing Fyodor.

This is supposed to be very symbolic and not taken literally. I feel the need to repeat this because I personally dislike the notion of Fyodor as a literal God (and disagree with the idea of him having a God-complex), so this is merely about the God-like traits he possesses, like a "substitute" for the idea of God, and how it interacts with Nikolai's philosophy. (I've also exaggerated some points for the sake of simplification - for example, I don't actually believe Fyodor is in control of absolutely everything, etc.)

Moving onto Demons:

Pyotr Verkhovensky grew up religious and (assuming based on Stepan's description) with a fear of God.

Now he's an atheist and very anti-religious. He plans to overthrow society, and destroying religion + everything it preaches is part of that plan. But interestingly enough, he picks not himself as the official future "ruler", but someone else: Nikolai Stavrogin. He chooses Stavrogin to be the role of the leader in Verkhovensky's ideal society. But not exactly the "leader" in the traditional sense, because he wouldn't necessarily give Stavrogin all the power. He would simply use him as a "pawn" (for lack of a better word) while himself pulling the strings behind said society. With that, Verkhovensky puts someone else above himself, in a God-like position, but he wants to do it while still keeping full control over Stavrogin. By doing so, he would overcome his childhood fear of God because instead of being controlled by God, *he* will control God.

(Same case here, not the literal God, but the character who he assigns God-like traits to.)

I am undecided (with both Nikolai's and Verkhovensky's character) whether this could be read as a solely subconscious intention or if it would make sense as a conscious one as well. Given that both have a different "main" goal (Nikolai focuses on emotions and Verkhovensky on the revolution) I lean more towards thinking it's subconscious (if present at all - like I said, just interpretations!)

It doesn't help that Verkhovensky describes his vision of Stavrogin's leadership as "hidden": Everyone believes in him and his power, but only very few people are said to actually have laid their eyes upon him. When I first read this part, I was honestly reminded of Big Brother from Orwell's 1984, but eventually realised that similar things can be said about God as well.

While these are parallels, they don't come without differences. Nikolai needs Fyodor dead, Verkhovensky needs Stavrogin alive. Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor for a sense of freedom, Verkhovensky wants to keep Stavrogin for a sense of control. Yet both symbolic goals are bound to fail:

Fyodor turns out to be unkillable, and Stavrogin ends up dead.

At the end, "God" stays untouchable.

[dailyoyo]

thabk yoi a lot dailyoyo your brains are very compelling to me it kind of makes me want to study you like ants . i quote you all the time like i tell my friends " i stole this sentiment / headcanon from a deranged yoyo tumblr account " . you are aspirational really Truly we need more dailyoyos in the world i cant stop thinking about lawyer yoyo now .... also i beg for more dissecting of yoyo and mew dynamics if ur Into That . theuve always been really interesting to me but honestly like 4 pieces of canonexist in jsr ever so

VERY DELIGHTFUL ASK TO GET. i love to hear that i have had a net impact in making people get weirder. its so important to me. making the jsr fandom worse one post at a time <3

a lot of the way i post in here is inspired by both my friends but also some of the crazy bitches (affectionate) ive seen around over in the dragon ball z fandom in particular, but really i think ANYONE in the world no matter the fandom has the god-given right to tear characters apart with their teeth and make them fail as fuck and really really really sick in the head in ways they were probably not intended to be read as in canon. Everypony out there get eviler!!!!!!!!!!!! Now.

IM GLAD YOU LIKE LAWYER YOYO I THINK ABOUT HIM A LOT TOO. hes fascinating to me in that like hes technically not a Bad Ending (MOST of that au technically isnt!) and yet objectively he is a worse outcome because in regular(paradox) canon theres an avenue for yoyo to heal and become less bastardous. because like he has genuine friends and positive interactions and reasons to Want to be more than a self serving shithead. and also hes 16 of course hes an asshole hes 16.

but with lawyer yoyo its like. Its too late. He grew up and he stayed like that and he does not care to change and he has no impetus to change. hes definitely living a safer and more comfortable life and he has much higher self-esteem but he is Staying dead inside. Like ok regular yoyo and lawyer yoyo are both mentally at the bottom of basically the same exact well but lawyer yoyo was like "fuck it" and built a house down there. do you get me

Oh fuck this post is getting so long and i havent even talked about mew and yoyo yet.

okay so liek. beat was yoyo's first proper Friend in the ggs (as opposed to "just tolerating him being around"). because beat kind of totally fell for yoyo's whole harmless schtick lmao. but mew was the first Real Friend in that she picked up on how much of a fake fuck yoyo was and decided to hang out with him anyway.

which. ADMITTEDLY. this was originally BECAUSE she was fascinated by yoyo being so insincere (for a while he was also really playing up the "ohoho i'm TOOOTALLY not a double agent" thing for shits and giggles even though he literally wasnt.). and as previously mentioned yoyo had a crush on her which is why he didnt realize mew could see right through him. honestly for a while he kind of thought he had totally had her under his thumb but the whole time mew was like "Awww hehe he thinks im only hanging out with him because of his manipulations, thats so cute ^_^" (<- DERANGED)

and in a way while they were already friends their friendship didnt Truly start until after yoyo confessed his love and was rejected. because like the whole thing was kind of a wakeup call for yoyo - mew had noticed his feelings all along and was waiting for him to say something Just to reject him, and like among normal people that would probably be a lot more hurtful but in that circumstance it was like... she'd outplayed him. easily. and he didn't even notice, but she's still here anyway. and she still wants to hang out with him even though she can tell the kind of person he is.

because the thing is like. mew may play up her innocence and naivety but she IS genuinely kind at heart. a lot of her strange desire to examine nasty people under a microscope is because of her desire to see the humanity in everyone, to understand Why people do the things they do. and she's not under any illusions that she can """Fix Him""", god knows she's not sure she can even "fix" herself, but she saw yoyo for what he was and could respect the survival mechanisms at play for what they were. (this is also why mew was so immediately like "idk Yoyo doesn't seem like that kind of person..." when the nt-3000 thing happened because. like. she Understood his modus operandi and that simply Wasn't It.)

and like when youre the kind of person who thinks that as soon as someone sees under your mask that they'll want you dead in a ditch, knowing someone who recognizes your mask and is just like "oh cool, i got one too" is kind of world-shaking. paradoxically them recognizing each others' insincerity makes them be a lot more sincere with each other.

Oh fuck this post long as hell. yoy

[thesnailtail]

m

m

j

!

;; MORE MORE JUMP!

;; oh where do i even start with them. i definitely don't have a favourite group and tis definitely not them. (/silly)

;; my "mmj is about effort" post says a lot about how i view them. they really are just a bunch of overworkers in a trench coat.

;; worse part is, they're all hypocrites about it. "haruka, you're not working at night again are you?!" "no. i hope you're not either?" "ha no." <- stayed up until two in the morning drawing something for mmj. yes that's how i view that one airi card side story.

;; they all have interesting dynamics with characters out with their groups as well!! not touching on certain ones or we'd be here for days.

;; 1-c trio is just wholesome!!! ichika and saki are the first people to treat her normally at school and haruka cares for them so much. they're the first people she lets herself get close to after retiring from asrun. sports fes should've been a haruka event anyway-

;; minori has a really interesting relationship with both the loudest and quietest character in the cast. tsukasa and her being the ultimate cheerleaders together! and then her and kanade's completely different energy levels compared to their incredibly similar goals? i want to dissect them and study them under a microscope /aff

;; airi and kohane having mutual complex emotions during the wedding event because of an and shizuku respectively is hilarious to me. i think their dynamic could be really fun to explore past that thought! two determined girls who for a period of time had no direction to put their determination.

;; shizuku's relationship with leo/need is fun to think about. first of all how she must have known them in childhood, second of all how she would have noticed them no longer coming over or shiho talking about them but never mentioning it because of her idol duties keeping her busy and third of all how she must love them so much. the ones who stay by her sister's side, who are now pursuing that dream with her.

;; i love MORE MORE JUMP! :D

[juniperpublishersoceanography]

Gonad Somatic Index and Feeding Habit of Selected Fish Species of Lake Kalgwaiin Jigawa State, Nigeria- Juniper publishers

Abstract

This study investigates gonado somatic index, food and feeding habit of selected fish species of Lake Kalgwai Jigawa State, Nigeria. Samples of fish were collected every fortnight (July 2012-June 2013) at three major landing sites of the lake. The weight of each fish was recorded, gonads were removed, weighed and the gonadosomatic index (GSI) calculated. Stomach was also removed and the content analyzed using frequency of occurrence and point method. Result obtained reveals GSI to range from 2.39±0.08% in Nile perch Latesniloticus [1] to 5.92±0.29% in Nile tilapia Oreochromisniloticus [1]. The stomach content analysis in this study distinguished the fish species into two major groups; Latesniloticus, Mormyrusmacrophthalmus Günther, 1866 and Bayad bagrus bayad Forsskal [2] were observed to exhibit carnivorous feeding habits and feed predominantly on crustacean, fish, fish parts, mollusks, insects and insect larvae, Oreochromisniloticus, African bony tongue Heterotisniloticus [3], Electric catfish Malapteruruselectricus, Synodotisnigrita and North African catfish Clarias gariepinus on the other hand were observed to have an omnivorous feeding pattern with plant parts, insect parts, detritus, crustaceans, snails, worms, fish parts, insects larvae, sand/mud, and algae dominating their diet. Many of the omnivores encountered in this study have good potential as future aquaculture candidate hence the need to further study their biology and their performance under captivity.

Keywords: Feeding Habit; GSI; Man-made lakes; Stomach analysis

Introduction

Continuous declining inland water catches are indication of low fish yield in many water bodies, the reason for this reduction in fish yield has been linked to inadequate management of fisheries as well as continuous degradation of water bodies Solomon et al. [4]. Many fish resources in Nigeria are currently over-fished and continuous pollution keeps threatening aquatic life and natural habitats [5]. The continuous use of obnoxious fishing practice, deliberate disposal of toxic chemicals and lack of regulation on fishing activities of many aquatic resources of Africa are the reasons for significant reduction in fish yield, loss of aquatic life and habitats destruction Adeyemo [5].

In sub Saharan Africa where fishing is not regulated, domestication and culture of commercially important fish species remains the key to mitigating further decline and possible extinction of important inland fishes Umaru et al. [6], hence the need to focus research on some aspect of the biology of fishes with the aim of domestication. The gonadosomatic index as well a feeding habit are some of the important biological aspect of fishes that needs to be understood for a successful domestication program, gonadosomatic index plays a significant role in evaluating reproductive potential, maturity index [7] as well as gonadal state of a fish Saksena [8]. The food and feeding habits of fish on the other hand is necessary to understand the welfare and husbandry requirements in the wild and adopting same in captivity so as to make domestication of fish a success. Pius and Benedicta [9] reported that the assessment of the stomach content of a fish reduce intra and inter specific competition for ecological niche as it is vital in providing straight forward models of stomach content and feeding dynamics.

In the wild, nature offers a great diversity of organisms that are used as food by fish and these differ in size and taxonomic groups. Many studies have been in an attempt to investigate dietary requirements of fish through it feeding habit in the wild Hynes [10], however, depending on the diversity of the nature of food available in different environment, outcome of such investigations may differ due to environmental differences even for the same species. Studies on the biological aspect of aquatic organism such as food and feeding habits are bases for the development of successful fisheries management programme, hence the need for continuous research Oronsaye & Nakpodia [11]. This study therefore examines the gonadosomatic index, food and feeding habits of selected fish species in lake KalwaiJigawa State, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods

Study area

The study was conducted at the Kalgwai Barrage Dam situated in Auyo Local Government Area of Jigawa State, Nigeria (Figure 1). The dam was constructed in 1984 by impounding the River Hadeja for  the purpose of irrigation. The irrigation was a Federal Government of Nigeriaprogram (Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project) coordinated by the Hadejia-Jama'are River Basin Development Authority (H.J.R.B.D.A). The dam covers an estimated area of 3800sqkm2 Matthes [12]. This has brought an increased fishing activity especially in those villages surrounding the dam site. Currently the importantly exploited fish species of the lake based on economic return of fishermen are Latesniloticus, Mormyrusmacropthalmu, Bagrusbayad, Oreochromisniloticus, Heterotisniloticus, Malapteruruselectricus, Synodotisnigrita and Clarias gariepinus.

Collections of samples

Fish sample for this study were obtained from fishermen at three major landing sites of the dam, namely Marke (Site I), Dingare (Site II) and Kalgwai (Site III) respectively (Figure 1). The fishing gears used by the fishermen in this study includes; traps, seine nets, cast net, gill nets, clap nets, hook and line, while crafts was basically canoe and calabash. Commercially important fish species (as stated earlier) were randomly sampled at each site fortnightly over a period of ten months (July 2012-June 2013). Sampling time was between 6:00am to 8:00am when fisher men would be returning to landing site after fishing through the night. Collected samples were fixed in ice chest and moved to the college of Agriculture laboratory in Hadejia for observation of the stomach content.

Gonadosomatic Index (GSI) determination

The fish were sorted by species and record of the weight taken individually; the fishes were dissected laterally to expose the internal organs. The gonads were then removed and weighed. The GSI was calculated using the following formula as described by Shaheena et al. [1].

Stomach content analysis

The stomachs of the dissected fishes as stated above were removed and immediately preserved in sterile bottles containing 5% formalin. Individual stomach contents were emptied into separate petri-dishes. While some stomach contents were identified macroscopically, others were identified microscopically using a light microscope.

The component food items were identified using identification guide provided in the college of Agriculture laboratory at Hadejia. The food items encountered were analyzed using frequency of occurrence method Hynes [10] and point method Cortes [13] as stated in the formulae below.

Ethical statement

Experimental procedures involving animal handling is in accordance with the standard practice as specified in the guide for handling experimental animal in University of Agriculture Makurdi, approval for this study was obtained from the Senate standing Committee on Research on behalf of the Governing council University of Agriculture Makurdi.

Results

Gonado somatic index (G.S.I)

The mean GSI for the selected fish species from the three major landing sites of Lake Kalgwai is presented in Table 1. The highest mean GSI recorded at site 1 was 6.05±0.52% for O. niloticus, followed by S. nigrita (4.23±0.16%) while the least value of 2.65±0.16% was obtained for L. niloticus. In site 2 also, mean GSI was highest for O. niloticus with the value of 4.97±0.54% and lowest in L. niloticus (2.40±0.12%). Similar trend was also observed for site 3 with as O.niloticus recorded highest percentage of GSI (6.74±0.24%) while L. niloticus also had the least value (2.11±0.07%). The average of the mean GSI for the selected commercially exploited fish species of Kalgwai dam is presented in Table 2. The result showed significant difference (P<0.05) in the mean GSI of the fish species with the highest value of 5.92±0.29% recorded in O.niloticus, followed by S.nigrita and C. gariepinus (4.50±0.14%) while the least value of 2.39±0.08% was observed in L.niloticus.

Means in the same row of species with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

Means with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

Food and Feeding of Selected Fish Species of Kalgwai Lake

Frequency of occurrence and percentage point of food items in the stomach of L. niloticus, O. niloticus, M. macrophthalmus, S. nigrita, B. bayad, H. niloticus, M. electricus, and C. gariepinus from the Lake Kalgwai is presented in Figure 1- 8 respectively below. In all of the stomach sampled none was found empty. The stomach content analysis in this study distinguished the fish species into two major groups; namely carnivorous (, M. macrophthalmus and B. bayad) and omnivorous feeding pattern (O. niloticus, H. niloticus, M. electricus, S. nigrita and C. gariepinus), feed isolated in the stomach of the carnivores in this study includes predominantly on crustacean, fish, fish parts, mollusks, insects and insect larvae while the spectrum of feed in the stomach of omnivore were plant parts, insect parts, detritus, crustaceans, snails, worms, fish parts, insects larvae, sand/mud, and algae.

Discussion

The stomach content analysis in this study revealed that none of the stomach of the sample fish species was empty, this is likely an indication of the efficiency of the sampling method used in this study, more so it could be an indication of good feeding habit adopted by the various species which enable them utilize available food item within the environment. This is similar to the findings of Olele [14] on feeding habit of Hyperopisus bebeoccidentalis Gunther, 1866 caught in Warri River, the 98% gut fullness recorded in Olele's [14] study was attributed to the efficiency of the method of feed analysis which was presumed to have stop food digestion during sampling through the injection of formalin into the gut region of the fish. Furthermore Haroon [15] and Nwani [16] opined that the greater number of guts with food in their study was as a result of boththe feeding strategy adopted by the fishes and the abundance of food during the sampling. Contrary to these reports, Ipinjolu et al. [17] had earlier reported empty stomach in 48.1% of Mormyrusrume Valenciennes, 1847, caught in Rima River and Goronyo Dam Sokoto, also none of the species encounter had 100% stomach fullness, these observations were however, attributed to the poor feeding habit adopted by the species and also to sampling method adopted for the study. Similarly, the findings of Aramowo [18] for Citharinus species caught with gill nets in Kainji Lake revealed empty stomach in over 67% fishes sampled and was attributed to regurgitation and vomiting of the food by the fish as they struggled during their capture, he also linked result outcome to possibly inadequacy of food material during the sampling period, the differences and similarities in all of this study could be linked to differences in fish species sampled, environmental diversities and sampling methods as earlier explained.

The fishes examined in this study can be rightly separated into two distinct group based on their feeding habit, namely carnivorous and omnivorous feeding habit. Food items found in the stomach of L. niloticus, M. macrophthalmus and B. bayad shows that the species exhibit carnivorous characteristics feeding on a wide spectrum of food of animal origin (which includes crustacean, fish, fish parts, mollusks, insects and insect larvae). According to Hickley & Bailey [19] B. bayad is described as macro-predator in River Nile (Southern Sudan) with its diet mainly consisting of fish prey, aquatic insects, organic detritus and aquatic higher plants. Bakhoum & Samir [4] however, reported that B. bayad is carnivore, with food spectrum including cichlid fish species, insect, insectlarvae, crustaceans, amphipods and detritus. The study by Ogutu-Ohwayo [20] had concluded that larger sized L. niloticus (>100cm) are mainly piscivorous. Katunzi et al. [21] also reported that stomach content analysis of Nile perch shifted from zooplankton and midge larvae, to macroinvertebrates (shrimps and dragonfly nymphs) and fish, due to size increase. Hence the differences in this study and those of the cited literature for the same species may be as a result of size variations as this study randomly but carefully selected larger sized fish of all species to give an overview of feeding habit of adult fish in the dam, more so, differences observed could also be attributed to differences in study area, or change in food availability over time.

O.niloticus, H. niloticus, M.electricus, S. nigrita and C. gariepinus on the other hand had food items which included plant parts, insect parts, detritus, crustaceans, snails, worms, fish parts, insect's larvae, sand/mud, and algae, this indicated that they are omnivorous feeders. The results of this study is similar to findings of Olatunde [22]. Adeyemi et al. [23] and Adeyemi [24] on the food and feeding habits of Synodontisschall and Synodontisresupinatus Boulenger [24] from Zaria area and Idah area of River Niger respectively. Oso et al. [25] had earlier stated that the ability to exploit different varieties of food items makes O. niloticus and Sarotherodongalilaeus Linnaeus [1] in a tropical reservoir an omnivorous feeder. Fagbenro et al. [3] also established the benthic feeding nature as well as planktonic feeding habit of Heterotisniloticus Cuvier [3] in River Oluwa and Owena Reservoir/Mahin Lagoon respectively. Ejikeet al. [26] also reported the food of Clariaslazera Valenciennes, 1840 from Jos area to be predominated by crustaceans, immature insect, bottom deposits and diatoms, hence concluded they were omnivores, the influence of environmental factor and food availability are largely the reasons for the different food item reported for these studies.

Gonadosomatic index (GSI) as observed in this study agrees with the findings of Fryer & Isles [27] and Jhingram & Pullin [28] who reported GSI to be between 4-20% and 3.637.9% respectively (at the peak of season). Shaheena et al. [1] reported that GSI fluctuates from a minimum of 2.302% in June to 11.363% in March with decrease (especially between April to June) been indication of complete spawning. Furthermore, Alam & Pathak [29] and Mishra & Saksena [7] also reported that GSI is synchronized with the level of maturation of fish, hence it peaks at full maturity, they further revealed that its abrupt decreased indicates beginning of spawning, although the present study focused on providing preliminary data on mean GSI, further research are recommended to further understand monthly variation in GSI for these commercially exploited species. The fish species investigated in this study exhibited both omnivorous and carnivorous feeding habit, feeding on a wide spectrum of food. Most of the fishes with omnivorous feeding habit have good potential for culture in captivity than the carnivorous fishes due to the expected protein requirement of animal origin, currently only Oreo chromisniloticus and Clarias gariepinus are widely cultured as one of the aquaculture candidate among the omnivorous fishes identified in this study, It is therefore recommended that more research be done on other aspect of the biology of these fishes with a view to better understand them for the sake of domestication. Meanwhile, nutritional trials can be conducted using wild juveniles and fingerlings of these species to further assess their domestication potential.

To Know More About Journal of Oceanography Please Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/ofoaj/index.php

[makingscipub]

Talking organelles: A riot of metaphors

A few days ago, somebody tweeted an article on organelles and somebody else tweeted an article on how worms regenerate their bodies. I was just in a slump of Brexit malaise when I saw this and thought, “oh, there is life outside Brexit a least in worms and cells”. So, I started to read an article published in Nature by Elie Dolgin, a science journalist “How secret conversations inside cells are transforming biology”. What’s discussed in this article is probably well-known to cell biologists, but it wasn’t to me.

I was hooked, not only because of the science but also, and perhaps even more so, by the firework of metaphors that I encountered. This made me think again about the fact that science/communication without metaphor is basically impossible. This seems to be particularly the case for cell biology, as the recent book by Andrew Reynolds has shown, entitled: The Third Lens: Metaphor and the Creation of Modern Cell Biology.

In the following I shall put this article under metaphorical microscope and tease out various types of metaphors used in it: conventional metaphors, more creative metaphors, and finally an extended metaphor, telling a whole new story about organelles.

I shall also say something about the interactions, indeed, ‘cross-talk’, between verbal and visual images, which was important for advancing research into organelles, leading up to discoveries relating to how organelles themselves talk between each other.

What are organelles?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines organelles as: “Any of various discrete, usually membrane-bound, structures within a cell or unicellular organism that perform specialized functions”.

The term is first attested for 1915 but harks back to an earlier term organella/organula from 1889. Somebody writing in American Naturalist pointed out: “It may possibly be of advantage to use the word organula here instead of organ, following a suggestion by Möbius. Functionally differentiated multicellular aggregates in multicellular forms or metazoa are in this sense organs, while for functionally differentiated portions of unicellular organisms or for such differentiated portions of the unicellular germ-elements of metazoa the diminutive—organula—is appropriate.”

Ten years later, in 1896, as Dolgin points out in her Nature article, “cytologist Edmund Beecher Wilson drew the cell with organelles neatly tucked into their own distinct cytoplasmic compartments” (p. 164). Here it is: Image from his textbook “The cell in Development and Inheritance”, second edition, 1900 (Wikimedia Commons):

In biology textbooks the various organelles inside a cell are generally depicted and labelled in standard ways, as for example in the featured image for this blog post. One can also often find tables, like this, that list organelles and their functions. And in the description of functions, metaphors creep in – in this case we are dealing with a eukaryotic cell. The metaphors in this table are quite tameIn other textbooks we find other metaphors and they circulate in science talk and text. When I tweeted about my intention to write this post, Matthew Cobb tweeted: “”powerhouse” (mt), “construction yard” (ER), “warehouse” (Golgi), “vacuum cleaners” (lysosomes), “dustbin” (vacuole), “frontier” (cell wall)”.

Some of these metaphors are more conventional than others, I suppose. The most overused and clichéd one seems to be that of ‘powerhouse’ for mitochondrion. As Liam Drew pointed out in a tweet: “I wrote something like ‘mitochondria – the powerhouses of the cell as science writers are contractually obliged to describe them’ and my copy editor changed it to ‘mitochondria – the powerhouses of the cell’”.

Back to the article under my microscope. The Nature article uses the conventional metaphor of ‘science as a journey’ through which we are told the story of Jean Vance who, after hitting a series or ‘roadblocks’ over a long period of time, finally published a ‘landmark’ paper which put organelle ‘conversations’ ‘on the map’ (that last one is my own metaphor).

I won’t go into this rather fascinating story, but focus instead on the metaphors for organelles and what they do that we encounter on the way. I just want to stress however that this article tells a very typical story about how science is often ‘done’ (it all starts with “I thought I’d made a big mistake” p. 162). It is also a typical example of how science is communicated: using well-established metaphors, extracting metaphors from scientists who use the ones they always use or create new ones on the spot, and giving that mix some creative twirls.

Conventional metaphors

As we have seen, there are lots of more or less conventionalised metaphors floating about that can be used to talk about organelles. Some are indispensable to science, what one can call theory-constitutive metaphors, some are didactic, some are explanatory, some are so clichéd that one has to cringe etc. The article under the microscope doesn’t use all of them, only some. Here they are:

Creative metaphors and similes

These are not the only metaphors used by/collected by Elie Dolgin. She also uses more creative ones, as in the title (“The secret conversations inside cells: Organelles – the cell’s workhorses – mingle much more than scientists ever appreciated”) and also in the section headings, which also use alliteration: “first contact”, “tether together”, “function junction”, “bad dancers” – we’ll come back to the dance metaphor! Here is a list of the creative metaphors and comarisons (similes) I found:

Extended metaphor

Now we come back to the dance metaphor, because one scientist interviewed for this article uses it as an extended metaphor to tell a whole new story about organelles.

“Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, a metabolic-disease researcher at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, likens the relationship between the ER and mitochondria to a sensual and dynamic flamenco performance. Just like dancers, the organelles ‘contact and separate, and then come into contact again, and flirt a little bit and go away’, he says. But in diseased liver cells, the two organelles stay entwined, and the rhythm is sluggish. ‘It doesn’t look very elegant,’ says Hotamışlıgil, who has shown that excessive contact between the ER and mitochondria in mouse liver cells is linked to insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity. ‘You can’t slow-dance flamenco — and that’s how the mitochondria–ER relationship becomes under metabolic stress,’ he adds.”

Verbal and visual metaphors

I have now dissected this great article in terms of the metaphors it uses. While doing so, it became clear that focusing on the verbal is not enough and that images and visual metaphors also play an important role in doing organelle science and communicating organelle science, from the end of the 19th century onward. The article itself contains a wonderful little cartoon of dancing organelles but also a (I believe) video still of the Endoplasmic Reticulum ‘swapping goods with various organelles’.

In fact, video footage of organelles doing their stuff was important in persuading sceptics that organelles are in constant conversation with each other. Images or pictures also made scientists themselves enter into conversation with each other: “scientists studying vesicles did not generally communicate with those who specialize in signalling through calcium ions. ‘There was no contact in the contact field,’ Levine says.” (p. 163)

Images changed from drawings to traditional microscope images to “super-resolution light microscopy to capture kaleidoscopic-colour 3D movies of intricate interactions between six organelles: the ER, mitochondria, the Golgi complex, peroxisomes, lysosomes and fat deposits called lipid droplets” (p. 164) Some researchers made “black-and-white films that showed the ER ensnaring mitochondria and other organelles in mouse neurons” (p. 164). Here we see a nice coming-together of verbal and visual metaphors.

However, as Dolgin points out, text book images of organelles have changed little since 1896. “From the ER to the Golgi to the vacuole to the endosome, each organelle is still shown in isolation, not as a dynamic dance of parts that continuously embrace and separate. ‘Nothing is drawn the way the cell actually looks,’ says Voeltz. ‘It would be nice to update that image.'”

Do we also need to update the language? It seems to work quite well at the moment, I think.

  Featured image: Animal cell and components (Wikimedia Commons)

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