#terrible example bc its so not straightfoward

[unganseylike]

and now, for something completely random:

i think that in every field of study or work, there are things people in that field consider to be fundamental knowledge and are shocked to find out most don't know. as an aspiring biologist, sometimes i feel more affronted by this than i should, because i assume the study of life is relevant to humans as living things ourselves. for example, i was really surprised that a lot of people i asked had never heard of archaea. it's a whole domain of life! and there's only three domains! but i can accept that bacteria are discussed all the time in medicine and the news, while archaea are non-pathogenic so even though they are super cool (and also found in your guts) they're not that relevant to most people. a year ago, i was also surprised to find that my mom didn't know what RNA is. I was like, mom the life-altering pandemic we have all experienced is caused by an RNA based virus, so you must've heard it mentioned on the news. but also, RNA is like. how we work. this briefly awakened me to the fact that many people are not familiar with the central dogma (DNA-> mRNA -> protein) that basically governs all life.

But this realization was lost to my subconscious until recently. i was at a party and chatting with my friend's boyfriend, a computer programmer. i was trying to explain my work but we of course came to a common misunderstanding that all molecular biologists are familiar with: colloquial use of the word protein is so different than its use in molbio. people think of protein and they think of it as a nutrient, i think of a gene product that serves some specific purpose. so i'm explaining the idea that we can study specific proteins, and the context of my model organism and he goes "i didn't think a bacteria could have something as complicated as a protein." at the time i was like huh thats a weird misconception and told him about the four biomolecules (i was also drunk enough that i hesitated naming all four, which i think says something lol).

but now his offhand comment is haunting me because what does he think DNA is for? DNA encodes proteins! This brought me to the realization that while most people know we have DNA and likely know that all living things have DNA, they probably don't know what purpose it physically serves. sure, they know it gets inherited and determines your eye color or whatever, and they know there are genes with a specific sequence that can be mutated and that mutations change something. It even seems like most people have heard of CRISPR. but i don't know that it's as widespread knowledge that genes encode proteins (before it is said, yes i know the central dogma is not 100% true and 1 gene= 1 protein isnt necessarily correct, but let's not get into it). Like people absolutely know DNA is inheritable information, but do they understand what this "information" actually means? Cells don't care that DNA dictates eye color, they are making enzymes and structures and transporters. Idk why this is haunting me, but maybe it's because it has clicked this common miscommunication we have around proteins is probably because people don't know the physiological purpose of DNA. And also because of course bacteria have proteins. i literally don't mean this in a superiority complex way, it's just fascinating to me that there's a broad familiarity with some aspects of molecular biology but not widespread knowledge of how they actually work...and how all living things work!

Anyway. What are things in your field that you are surprised to find most people don't know?