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New species of fungus identified via Twitter

phys.org

21–30 of 101 posts

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#21
post #8

Maybe I’m being too dismissive, but this strikes me as an equivalent of existing-invention-but-using-a-computer software patents. I just don’t see how it’s particularly newsworthy or interesting that an image shared on Twitter was involved in the discovery. It allowed for a headline that made me click, though.

I think you might be. Whatever its hype, Twitter (and its ilk) does enable a previously unheard of level of sharing of minor details.

This fungus is exactly the sort of thing which would normally go missing in the vaults of a museum because the five people who ever saw it didn't recognise it as anything interesting. This is such a common phenomenon that trawling through museum collections is a non-trivial source of new species identifications.

The fact that an image normally only seen by a few people should be shared to thousands, and hence a discovery made based on it, is significant because there were few avenues by which it could happen pre-social media.

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#22

> The newly discovered parasitic fungus has now been given its official Latin name, Troglomyces twitteri. It only took me until 35 to realize these official, scientific-sounding names are part useful, part researchers trolling us.

they should have let Twitter name it too in a Twitter poll

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#23
post #19

since the article mentioned this, since when can people in the scientific field simply share their research data without facing any consequences? edit: sorry my bad, I realized my question was not making sense, I actually mean they can publish research data if the authority does not approve of it?

What sort of consequences do you mean?

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#25

> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?

Not Latinified, but a key protein in brain and spinal cord development is called sonic hedgehog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog

The oddest thing was sitting through neuro lectures when this was introduced as if it was the most normal name in the world. We were looking at each other like "are we hearing this right?"

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#26
post #23
post #19

since the article mentioned this, since when can people in the scientific field simply share their research data without facing any consequences? edit: sorry my bad, I realized my question was not making sense, I actually mean they can publish research data if the authority does not approve of it?

What sort of consequences do you mean?

sorry my bad, I realized my question was not making sense, I actually mean they can publish research data if the authority does not approve of it?

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#29

> the new species has now been given its official name, 'troglomyces twitteri' Academia always seems so mature and serious from outside, nice to know there can be some lighthearted humor there too :) As an aside, do you guys know any other Latin animal names that may have an 'untraditional' origin?

Nothing unusual about the origin on this one, but an amusing binomial nonetheless:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_blackbird

Re: New species of fungus identified via Twitter

#30
post #8

Maybe I’m being too dismissive, but this strikes me as an equivalent of existing-invention-but-using-a-computer software patents. I just don’t see how it’s particularly newsworthy or interesting that an image shared on Twitter was involved in the discovery. It allowed for a headline that made me click, though.

The word news is literally the plural of new, as in new things. This is an new species discovered using a new method involving a relatively new communications medium. And in particular, it involves one of the strengths of this new medium: letting people share things with others that might be interested.

A key difference between social media and older media is who gets to say yes to publication. For this photo to reach this researcher in a previous age, there would have been several people who had the ability to say no. And limited space would mean they'd have a strong incentive to say no. But now it just takes one person to say, "Here's a thing I think is interesting." Every reader also has their own editorial power; they can share and retweet.

So for me, this is interesting because it's showing how the "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" adage applies to literal bugs. That the chaotic nature of Twitter is not just providing me with things I find interesting, but leading to actual scientific advance.

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