New Scientist - USA (2020-04-25)

25 April 2020 | New Scientist | 29

Origin of words

There are fun tales behind where science

terms come from, says David Silverberg

Podcast

Science Diction

WNYC Studios

THE word “meme” wasn’t

created to describe things that

spread all over the internet.

Rather, evolutionary biologist

Richard Dawkins coined the

term when he was hunting for

an idea-focused counterpart

to the concept of a gene.

If animals and plants create

copies of genes every time they

reproduce, what happens when

cultural phenomena replicate

themselves over and over?

Dawkins invented a word for

this by riffing off the Greek

word mimema, which means

imitated, and blended it with

“gene” to create meme.

This etymological lesson

comes courtesy of Science

Diction, a podcast launched in

March by the New York-based

WNYC Studios and the team

behind its main science podcast

Science Friday.

Hosted by Johanna Mayer,

the podcast comes in short

sharp bites that rarely stretch

beyond 15 minutes, with each

unveiling the origin of science

words and phrases by telling

the stories behind how they

came to be.

Another head-turning

episode takes on the word

“vaccine”, which was coined

by British physician Edward

Jenner in the 18th century.

The story begins with Jenner

testing the idea that physicians

could use cowpox to prevent

the related, but deadly, disease

smallpox. In 1796, he gave

cowpox to an 8-year-old boy,

then exposed him to a sample

of smallpox, itself a violation

of “about 1000 ethical rules,

but it went down in history as

the first official scientifically

documented vaccination”,

says Mayer.

The boy never contracted

smallpox, even after Jenner

exposed him to the disease

dozens of times.

Jenner wrote up his findings

in a book called An Inquiry Into

the Causes and Effects of the

Variola Vaccinae. In Latin,

variola means pustules, and

vacca means something that

comes from a cow.

So variola vaccine basically

refers to cow pustules or

cowpox, according to Mayer.

Engaging and breezy

narration, ornamented with

light sound design, keeps

Science Diction moving at

a brisk pace. The words and

phrases being examined will

be familiar to most listeners

and some of the stories will be

too. But having them brought

together in a podcast is a more

than pleasant way to spend a

quarter of an hour. ❚

David Silverberg is a freelance

writer based in Canada

One episode of Science Diction

delves into the 18th-century

RO origins of the word “vaccine”

SE

W

ON

G

in the first place – or it may have
just not happened yet.
More generally, is “our kind of
life” the only kind of life there is,
or might there be others?
Saturn’s moon Titan has a
water-ice surface carved and
shaped by falling and flowing
liquid methane. Beneath that icy
shell, there probably resides a deep
ocean of liquid water, which could
host life as we know it. But any life
discovered in the liquid methane
lakes on Titan’s surface would
have a biochemistry completely
different from ours.
We used to think that life could
only exist in a “Goldilocks zone”
dictated by distance from the sun.
Too close, and life would fry; too
far, and it would freeze. Hand leads
the reader through today’s more
complex picture, where liquid
water is surprisingly common
but other limiting factors pertain.
For example, a lack of rocky
mantle, or a seabed pressure so
high that the water there turns
to unfamiliar forms of heavy ice,
could leave an ocean without the
minerals necessary for life. Or if
a moon has too circular an orbit,
it won’t provide tidal heating
sufficient to keep water on its
surface in a liquid state.
In a book that is likely to prove
one of the year’s most enthralling
first-person accounts of a life
in science, Hand maps the likely
limits on life and liveability.
Equally, he is out to excite us with
the possibilities. Imagine vast
carbonate chimneys, kilometres
high, rising above Enceladus’s sea
floor like geological skyscrapers!
Imagine geothermally active
rogue planets transporting fish,
squid and octopuses from star to
star! “Perhaps one is even on its
way toward us now,” says Hand. ❚

Simon Ings is a freelance culture writer
based in London

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