4 ms·

I stopped reading at "single-celled protein", which indicates to me that the author does not understand basic biology. Does anyone have a better take on this?

pstuart 7y ago
If it has a wikipedia page does that change things? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-cell_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-cell_protein
- wpietri 7y ago
  Single-cell protein is a thing. Single-celled protein isn't. The website has the former; the article, the latter.
  - wilg 7y ago
    I'm curious why you think the distinction matters? Surely there's no confusion. And "single-celled organism" is an acceptable phrase. And a "single-cell protein" in fact _is_ a "single-celled organism".
    - wpietri 7y ago
      I think precision always matters in writing, especially science writing. If the author of the article is making obvious mistakes, it's reasonable to wonder whether they're making mistakes I am not qualified to spot.
      - majewsky 7y ago
        FWIW, a Google search for "single-celled protein" turns up a bunch of scientific papers using that term as well. I would guess that it's just a situation where both variants are acceptable. Maybe it's a regional thing like "color" vs. "colour".
        wpietri 7y ago
        When I seach for "single-celled protein" I don't see any scientific papers on the first page, and the first two hits are this very discussion. Suggesting that if the phrase is really by scientists, it's used so very rarely that it's a mistake, just like it is here.
      - wilg 7y ago
        Precision absolutely matters, but I'm questioning your assertion that the author was imprecise. I don't know that I believe that it's a mistake.
kemiller 7y ago
The same term is all over their actual webpage. I don’t know what it means either but perhaps it’s referring to the process somehow.
tacon 7y ago
The "single-cell protein" phrase is straight from the parent company's home page. https://solarfoods.fi/ https://solarfoods.fi/
cwp 7y ago
They probably just don't want to say "bacteria" because that sounds unhealthy.
schoen 7y ago
Edit: I looked into this briefly, but now I think the sibling comments are more helpful than mine here.
TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
That’s lazy. The paragraph immediately before that term is used talks about a natural fermentation process similar to the one that produces yeast and lactic acid bacteria which provides context for the single-cell protein concept.
carapace 7y ago
No, you're on the money: they're growing yeast and pretending it's magic.
kbutler 7y ago
single-cell protein, also called single-celled protein (for example https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajft.2011.103.116 https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajft.2011.103.116 uses both), refers to the process of producing the protein using unicellular (or "single-celled") organisms rather than implying that the protein is composed of cells (or of single-cell organisms).

pstuart 7y ago

If it has a wikipedia page does that change things? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-cell_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-cell_protein

wpietri 7y ago
Single-cell protein is a thing. Single-celled protein isn't. The website has the former; the article, the latter.
- wilg 7y ago
  I'm curious why you think the distinction matters? Surely there's no confusion. And "single-celled organism" is an acceptable phrase. And a "single-cell protein" in fact _is_ a "single-celled organism".
  - wpietri 7y ago
    I think precision always matters in writing, especially science writing. If the author of the article is making obvious mistakes, it's reasonable to wonder whether they're making mistakes I am not qualified to spot.
    - majewsky 7y ago
      FWIW, a Google search for "single-celled protein" turns up a bunch of scientific papers using that term as well. I would guess that it's just a situation where both variants are acceptable. Maybe it's a regional thing like "color" vs. "colour".
      - wpietri 7y ago
        When I seach for "single-celled protein" I don't see any scientific papers on the first page, and the first two hits are this very discussion. Suggesting that if the phrase is really by scientists, it's used so very rarely that it's a mistake, just like it is here.
    - wilg 7y ago
      Precision absolutely matters, but I'm questioning your assertion that the author was imprecise. I don't know that I believe that it's a mistake.

kemiller 7y ago

The same term is all over their actual webpage. I don’t know what it means either but perhaps it’s referring to the process somehow.

tacon 7y ago

The "single-cell protein" phrase is straight from the parent company's home page. https://solarfoods.fi/ https://solarfoods.fi/

cwp 7y ago

They probably just don't want to say "bacteria" because that sounds unhealthy.

schoen 7y ago

Edit: I looked into this briefly, but now I think the sibling comments are more helpful than mine here.

TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago

That’s lazy. The paragraph immediately before that term is used talks about a natural fermentation process similar to the one that produces yeast and lactic acid bacteria which provides context for the single-cell protein concept.

carapace 7y ago

No, you're on the money: they're growing yeast and pretending it's magic.

kbutler 7y ago

single-cell protein, also called single-celled protein (for example https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajft.2011.103.116 https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajft.2011.103.116 uses both), refers to the process of producing the protein using unicellular (or "single-celled") organisms rather than implying that the protein is composed of cells (or of single-cell organisms).