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

Wow - I’m amazed by the continuing popularity of Pokémon. Between that and the Power Rangers, it seems 90’s pop culture will never die. Though I was never really interested in Pokémon, I can certainly understand the impulse. And it has to be said that the Gameboy titles were actually pretty great.

Anyway, VIZ sent us the following press release announcing the DVD release of POKÉMON: THE RISE OF DARKRAI, which arrived yesterday. Actually - this is just the kind of thing my son would enjoy. He spent the better part of the weekend harvesting cicadas out of our yard and putting them in small plastic containers. Hm.

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