I hate to say it, since it reinforced Hollywood stereotypes…but most scientists are big geeks.

I know this because my husband is a scientist, and he is a big geek (I am a big geek too, but I am not a scientist). Also, many of the scientists we know are big geeks.

He is a biochemist, which means he does things with proteins a lot. Proteins, and glass bottles, and mice. Some time ago he informed me that when scientists discover a new protein, they get to name it (if I could name a protein, I would call it Gloopy McFluffernutter, with an umlaut over the r, but no one asked me). There is actually some poor protein out there called SonicHedgehog. I am not even kidding. I bet all the other proteins beat up on it.

But at least now poor SonicHedgehog has a companion in silly named-ness. Some geeky Japanese scientists have named a protein Pikachurin, after the adorable/annoying as hell character of Pokemon fame.

For a description of Pikachurin and what it does, check out this link:

http://www.imeg.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/coe/liaisonlab/g24.html