4 ms·

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.

• charles_f 7y ago
  Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell x2 in the heart
• rootsudo 7y ago
  I love this meme.
  • stjohnswarts 7y ago
    It's not a meme, it's an analogy.
    • falcor84 7y ago
      Well, it definitely is a meme as defined by Dawkins[0]. In general, I would say that analogies and metaphors like this one have a huge impact on normal science, and are one of the main things that change during a paradigm shift. I recall a great example in how 150 years ago people thought of the body's physiology as analogous to a steam engine with downstream effects due to pressure building up, contrasted to how in today's computer age, we tend to think of physiology in terms of signal processing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
      • lioeters 7y ago
        I agree, the imagery that we use in metaphor (in speech, visually, or in conception) influences how we think about things - and a popular analogy like that about the mitochondria is certainly a meme, a "cultural information transfer". As you pointed out, a fairly recent meme is "the brain is the computer of the body", and maybe "the Internet is the brain of humanity".