this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Science Memes
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Non-anglophones, is this a thing you can relate to? I've never been told "das Mitochondrium ist das Kraftwerk der Zelle" or anything like it, at least not nearly to the extent that anglophones seem to, so much so that it's forever burnt into their brain folds apparently.
I think "endoplasmatisches Retikulum" is a more memorable phrase we learn or meme about
Bodo Wartke - endoplasmatisches Retikulum
i don't even remember learning about the mitochondrion in school lmao
As a German, I’ve definitely learned that in school. Maybe it was memes by then as well, but it being the late 90s I doubt it.
Same!
All of us who learned Spanish in the U.S. also know "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?"
Just a bunch of canned phrases like that kicking around in our brains.
The FitnessGram Pacer test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues.
The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal bodeboop.
What is going on at your schools?!
All I remember from Spanish class is "no en nintendo"
As a Canadian, I share your confusion. I think that phrase was just a common descriptor of mitochondria in US textbooks, or a catchy line in a popular US biology video.
It's just strange enough to make a big impression on bored students, so I'm not surprised it's been memed so hard.
I think it was tossed around on Reddit a lot, too, back in the day, increasing its permeation through our ilk
Wikipedia says:
But know your meme attributes its meme status to this tumblr post from 2013:
Contrary to comments in many places like this reddit thread from 2018, I suspect the phrase wasn't actually used in many textbooks or very commonly known prior to that tumblr post.
(If you search on Google Books you can find numerous textbooks using the phrase. Range-based search on Google Books appears to be broken so I'm not sure, but all the ones I checked were published well after 2013.)