3 ms·
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
by 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 agoI 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 agoFWIW, 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 agoWhen 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 agoPrecision 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.