Shocking revelation about my core discipline


My whole worldview is in upheaval. I thought I had a Ph.D. in biology, and broadly understood what that entailed, but now I learn that the proper way to parse the name of the discipline is not to read “bio” as “life”, but “bi” as in “two”. I’m a two-ologist!

Isn’t folk etymology fun? Especially when wielded by a conspiracy-theorist, racist, sexist, climate-change-denying, pro-war MAGAt to get the rationalization he wants.

Wow. That boy is stupid.

Comments

  1. postman says

    Mixing greek with latin so you can rationalize your regressive gender ideology is obviously a genious move.

  2. Athywren - not the moon you're looking for says

    From now on, “sorry if this triggers you” is going to have to replace “true story” when I tell outright, obvious lies for amusement purposes.

  3. chigau (違う) says

    One ought to put the trigger warning before the trigger.
    Putting it after lacks sincerity.

  4. Zeppelin says

    Like…even if we really had, for some reason, decided to call the study of living things “men-and-women-ology”…that would just mean it’s poorly named.

  5. ridana says

    Well, he started off right, with “Biology is ‘basic’ silly.” Then he went off the rails by defining “bio” as male/female. Clearly bi-ology is the study of base 2. It’s a mathematical science, duh!

  6. ridana says

    And apologies for assuming @ChiefsNorthFan is male. There’s nothing to indicate that’s the case.

  7. leerudolph says

    I beg to differ with both PZ and ChiefsNorthFan. As anyone with access to Google Maps (or even the appropriate-scale Michelin maps of France) and Wikipedia can readily verify, Biol is a commune in the French département d’Isère not too far south of Geneva, Switzerland, while Ogy was (until January 2017) a commune in the French département de Moselle, only slightly south of the capital city of Luxembourg. Thus it is clear that Biology was, is, and should always remain the study of connections between minimal, liminal geographical components of the eastern portions of European francophonia. How that One Correct Usage became perverted into those of PZ and CNF remains a bit of a mystery, but, hey; that’s life! (I suspect that the devil made them do it. Or the communists. Maybe both.)

  8. Frederic Bourgault-Christie says

    Anyone want to take bets that this gentleman believes in defending Western civilization and its values and heritage? Funny how the people who say that never seem that interested in donating to museums or foundations educating folks, or learning their basic prefixes and suffixes from Greek and Latin…

  9. killyosaur says

    @leerudolph, was it the communists living on the communes that made them do it or other previously unreported communists?

  10. zetopan says

    One of the natural compensations of living in our universe is that the arrogantly and willfully ignorant are always extremely eager to display their very high levels of Dunning Kruger to everyone else. Hence it isn’t even necessary to look for such professional fools because they self advertise so very well.

  11. petesh says

    @13: “previously unreported communists” provoked something between a snort and a chuckle, mixed with a groan and served with wry on the side.

  12. Athywren - not the moon you're looking for says

    So…
    what do geologists study?

    They study George Hrab. Just him.

  13. grandolddeity says

    If I recall correctly, it is the hazy chapter in a memoir. I dunno it’s all Greek/Dutch to me.

  14. efogoto says

    So…
    what do geologists study?

    They study George Hrab. Just him.

    And here I thought it was anything that made them say “Gee!”

  15. woozy says

    geologists study the ground and not environmental changes or anything that pertains to climate. “Geo= g=gravity” it’s the study of things on the ground. The word “ground” means “g-round” indicating when things fall to the earth the earth becomes round in shape.

  16. lesherb says

    If “bi” means 2 (two), surely you’ve been doing the job of 2 scientists from the beginning. Seems to me you’re owed quite a bit of money from your employer, PZ. 😊

  17. rustiguzzi says

    Oddly enough, in my very first biology lesson at age eleven, the teacher stated that the “bi” in “biology could be taken to mean that it’s composed of two disciplines, namely botany and zoology. It was years before I twigged that he was joking.

  18. chrislawson says

    Archeology: the study of arks, of which there is only one; it landed on Mt Ararat
    Astronomy: the study of buttocks
    Philosophy: the study of TV hosts
    Ecology: the study of small mammalian squeaks
    Meteorology: the study of especially fleshy mouths
    Physiology: the study of soft drinks
    Cosmology: the study of Kramer
    Nanotechnology: the study of how the elderly use smartphones

  19. wzrd1 says

    You know, I’ve met millions of amoeba that were INCELs.
    Something about a lack of females being unappreciative or some other drivel.
    Wait! INCEL crowd people have something in common with life, in one way, being kin to zero sex organisms and hence, rejected by any other organism.
    I’ll get my coat…