trivia

Markov (@MarkovMagnifico ✓) — Jun 12 how am I just learning that the word "matrix" literally means womb and it was chosen because it "births determinants" [Embedded screenshot, appears to be from Wikipedia:] This use of the term matrix in mathematics (an English word for "womb" in the 19th century, from Latin, as well as a jargon word in printing, in biology and in geology[194]) was coined by James Joseph Sylvester in 1850,[195] who understood a matrix as an object giving rise to several determinants today called minors, that is to say, determinants of smaller matrices that derive from the original one by removing columns and rows. In an 1851 paper, Sylvester explains:[196] "I have in previous papers defined a 'Matrix' as a rectangular array of terms, out of which different systems of determinants may be engendered from the womb of a common parent."

whimsy loh... @SexyLikeMeio... · Feb 15 TIL about the existence of blebbisomes (large extracellular vesicles that contain everything but a nucleus) and they are named this because they, in the technical parlance, "bleb around" it's so WHIMSICAL i'm so happy bleb bleb bleb [screenshot of a scientific text, highlighted: "Timelapse imaging revealed that blebbisomes continuously bleb for at least 72–96 h. As membrane blebbing requires a..."]