Hm no, the problem is much more at the roots of science than you think. Most of biology is based on humans’ biased assumptions and expectations. For example, only when queer theory was developed did biologists really grasp how much deviant the animal kingdom in regards to sex, gender and sexuality actually is.

Just think how many layers deep this is: humans exist -> develop social structures -> develop social constructs that feel essential -> try to describe their own biology through the lense of all the prior layers -> develop awareness about some social constructs -> revisit their own biology but still with a lot of biases

What you express by saying that it isn’t possible anymore to just speak about biology is imo rather an expression of denying certain advancements we’ve made. Our ideas and models of biology a few decades ago may have been simpler, but not more true. We’ve just realized to some extend how complex biology is and how our prior models have made many poor assumptions.

EO Wilson is having his own concepts and biases of human societies and projects them onto this pseudoscientific narrative. He is obviously not aware of his own position in society and how it shapes his assumptions.

Surprisingly short list regarding the millions of described species!

Apple’s whole business model is creating hype around their products. And if this hype is preemptively damaged by leaking secrets that would otherwise feed the hype, they clearly are negatively affected by this. I don’t say any of this is good, that’s just their business model. And capitalism of course…

However, in this case here the youtuber imo didn’t really reveal the product itself, but only a mockup version. Shouldn’t that be even beneficial to Apple? I’d think creating all this buzz around the “leak” is just one way to try to get more hype going for them.

What kind of fruit a plant develops is something entirely different to what a grass is though. And these are all taxonomically different groups (palms, bananas and grasses).

At least both Musaceae (Bananas) and Poaceae (Grasses) are both monocots. But that’s where their taxonomic proximity ends. They are not even in the same order (Zingiberales vs Poales)…

Came here to say this :)

Yep, I really hate those moments, too. My father used to do this all the time just to get one up on me :/

OK, got it

I don’t see anyone being hostile, do you?

No worries, “being smug over the meanings of words that aren’t ever actually used in a consistent way” is done over here in Europe as well. People have the exact same conversations you list as examples. I would even go so far and say that this is true for the whole world and throughout time, a human condition. I would also think that it really isn’t about the words/language, but rather about having control over the conversation and power over others.

Have you uploaded it to iNaturalist? People will definitely be able to ID it over there!

Yes, bisexual means something else in both contexts…

Well, if it works for you, great. But that doesn’t mean that it will work for anyone else.

OK got It, so mostly oregano-ish with notes of thyme :)

Looked it up because I hadn’t heard of it. Wikipedia say the following:

Common names in English include Indian borage, country borage, French thyme, Indian mint, Mexican mint, Cuban oregano, broad leaf thyme, soup mint, Spanish thyme.

What? So does it taste like a mix of borage, thyme, mint and oregano?? Sure, they are all Lamiaceae (except for borage), but they have wildly different aromas!

How is bread and sugar not plants?? Oversimplifying stuff doesn’t make it better…

Yes, that’s what I wondered, too. In ant nest parasites they usually are visually very different from the ants, but get the pheromones right. In this example here, visual clues have to be important for the beetle to have evolved such a sophisticated mimicry.

It’s maybe comparable to a bee hive or ant nest losing it’s workers. Each single one of them isn’t important at all. But if nearly all of them are gone, the hive/nest will do much worse or even collapse.

Nice, thanks!!

Oh wow, the first one sounds mean. Never heard of an isopod parasite (but I’d now guess there are many more aquatic ones?). And inducing necrosis of the tongue to be the new fish’s organ, ouch :O

And what a wild ride the second story is! Thanks for sharing :)