It’ll Never Fly: When Gene Names Are TOO Fun

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In 1910, a fruit fly geneticist named Thomas Hunt Morgan noticed something strange in one of his specimens. Out of his many, many fruit flies—all with brilliant red eyes—a single fly had white eyes. This fruit fly turned out to be a very big deal. From those white eyes, Morgan eventually figured out that genes can be sex-linked, confirmed that genes exist on chromosomes, and won the Nobel prize.

But he also cemented his legacy another way, with what he chose to name that gene: “white.” It might sound uninspired, but it kicked off a tradition that decades later gave us names like spatzle, hamlet, and ken and barbie. Here and there, a name went too far, but overall, fanciful names brought joy to researchers and worked well—until genes like these were discovered in humans, and everything went awry.

Johanna and Senior Producer Elah Feder team up with Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist to talk about fruit flies, genes, and whether it’s ok to name a gene after a German noodle.

Plus, after much demand, we bring you… the origin of defenestration!

Read a transcript of this episode.

Guest: 

Helen Zaltzman is the host of The Allusionist.

Credits: 

Science Diction is produced by Johanna Mayer and Senior Producer Elah Feder. D Peterschmidt is our composer. Nadja Oertelt is our Chief Content Officer.