This is Ed Southern. He developed a method of detecting specific DNA sequences by using radiolabeled DNA probes on gel separated DNA. We call them Southern blots.
When a similar method was developed that used RNA instead of DNA...
When a similar method was developed that used RNA instead of DNA...
... the snickering scientists called it a Northern blot, to make it the opposite of Ed Southern's technique.
Then someone came up with a similar way of detecting proteins using other proteins, and using the same funny/not funny naming method, called it a #WesternBlot.
Then someone came up with a similar way of detecting proteins using other proteins, and using the same funny/not funny naming method, called it a #WesternBlot.
My point, and this cannot be emphasized enough, is this:
#Biologists have a terrible, terrible, terrible sense of what is funny.
#Biologists have a terrible, terrible, terrible sense of what is funny.
