omitted.net

I usually pop into a coffee shop in the morning to enjoy a cup of coffee with my daily dose of reading material. Today an elderly couple sat down at the table next to me, and I could help but giggle a little eavesdropping on their conversation. It went something like this:

(she picks up his newspaper)

Him: There is an article in there about fat people.
Her: What about them?
Him: They think that the reason they're fat is because of their genes.

Now, I figured what came next would be great, since just a few minutes prior he attempted to explain the finer points between his "iced mocha latte" and what she described as a "milkshake".

Her: What, they get fat enough so their jeans will fit?
Him: No their genes.
Her: What about them?
Him: Genes like DNA.
Her: I don't know anything about those fancy jeans. People spend too much money on those.

It went on like that for a few minutes before he gave up. We as scientists need to examine sources of confusion when naming new discoveries, because I guess in this case context wasn't enough. The word "gene" originates from the German Gen, from Pagen, an 'ultimate unit of heredity' from the Greek pan- 'all' + genos 'race, kind, offspring' so I guess in this case we can't really blame some quirky scientist.