Fossilized Word of the Day

Today's word hits maybe a bit too close to home. Or even actually literally at home. Shelterin complex (n.): a longing for human contact that develops after several weeks of sheltering in place.

@EndOfThePier @VeryBadLlama sorry to say you've been slightly scooped! twitter.com/KingLabWOTD/st…

enjoying the enrichment of glasses-wearers among the people who liked this tweet

The optomotor response is one of the most deeply encoded reflex arcs. Optomotor response (n.): the suddenly irresistible urge to readjust your glasses whenever you are not supposed to touch your face.

Contact tracing might seem straightforward in theory, but is surprisingly complicated in practice. Contact tracing (n.): attempting to find a transparent contact lens that fell on the floor by trying to guess its fall trajectory. (Has never succeeded under realistic conditions.)

@peiferlabunc All rumors of us getting work done are strictly untrue and frankly offensive.

You can learn new techniques even while working from home. For example, some of us have recently become proficient in Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy (n.): the use of colors to decide what type of instant noodle you’ll eat at home today.

Some newly emerging model organisms have rapidly become impressively popular. Model organism (n.): Anthony Fauci - he's just the best organism.

(you might have correctly guessed that some of our contributors have the good fortune of being sheltered in place with a really large whiteboard, while some others, well, don't)

Today's word is a fundamental scientific concept of the 20s. Wave-particle duality (n.): when you don’t know if you should awkwardly wave at someone from six feet away or politely yell “HI, HOW ARE YOU?” at the risk of projecting saliva particles in their general direction.

Tired of working from home? In urgent need of more ways to procrastinate? We have news for you: the WOTD is back! With whiteboard markers s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶a̶b̶ acquired in an honest fashion, we'll be back delivering daily, disputable definitions. Stay tuned...

Discovered in Vienna in the late 19th century, the sigmoid function has since acquired long-lasting worldwide popularity. Sigmoid function (n.): party where everyone shows up dressed as Sigmund Freud.

Several readers have asked us to give the scientific definition of an acorn. We're happy to help: Acorn (n.): a hornless unicorn. (See also "horse")

It seems someone who stopped by our lab tried to contribute a physics word of the day... but the definition they wrote on our whiteboard was mistaken! We've corrected it for them.Hopf bifurcation (n.): A scientific term for the game of hopscotch.

next-gen planned sequencing parenthood 🤝 pioneered by someone named Sanger Next-generation sequencing (n.): a.k.a. Planned Parenthood.

@peiferlabunc @Choano_Lab @johnlegend

Before the 1949 version by Frank Loesser or the 2019 rewrite by @johnlegend, the original "Baby It's Cold Outside" was actually a song about turtle eggs. Temperature-dependent sex determination (n): One explanation for why many babies are born 9 months after the winter holidays.

I made a video about the CRISPR patent dispute. Parody of "Obedient Servant" from the musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. youtu.be/rAyZys1CIcU

The core of globin function is their ability to undergo repeated cycles of loading and unloading. Globin (n.): a trash can that shines in the dark.