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Mitochondria is the power house of the cell (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by red_pigeon@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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This (arguably unhelpful) phrase seems to be taught across schools all over the world. What are some other phrases like this that are common ?

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not doubting it was used before the meme, I'm just doubting the ubiquity of it prior to the meme. I believe it is a bit of a Mandela effect type of thing. People remember the general purpose of mitochondria and remember their science teachers saying things similar to the effect of "powerhouse of the cell" even if they didn't actually say that. Sort of like how "beam me up, Scotty" was specifically never used in Star Trek but just about every other variant of the phrase was.

[–] petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not gonna go looking for scans or anything, but KnowYourMeme lists the popularity of this one as starting between 2013 and 2015, and I definitely remember seeing this phrase in a textbook around 2010 or 2011. So honestly, I might blame Pearson or McGraw Hill.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 3 months ago

That's after my time in highschool. (Class of 2010.) It's possible there was enough of a push to get new editions of books and they all happened to use that phrase right around the time a bunch of future memers would be online that it caused it.

The unlikely story of how two country singers are behind the mitochondria is the powerhouse. Aaaaaand now that I'm double checking that I'm wondering if I've been a victim of misinformation. I thought somebody told me Tim McGraw and Faith Hill founded McGraw Hill but I'm not seeing anything to support that.