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New protein named after Pikachu +
You just have to already know this is coming from Japan. A group of researchers at the Osaka Bioscience Institute has discovered a protein that is vital to transmitting information to the brain Yomiuri writes,
The researchers believe that the protein plays a role in determining the efficiency of kinetic vision. They therefore named the protein pikachurin after Pikachu, a popular anime character in the Pokemon media franchise known for its lightning-fast moves.
I’m still not really getting the connection to Pikachu here. Kinetic is an adjective means, “Of, relation to, or produced by motion.” Kinetic vision, I would assume means something close to the energy required to track vision. Can someone clue to into how Pikachu has any relation to that? Then again, these are trained professionals, so they must know what they are talking about.
Via Yomiuri.
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jtlyk on 
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July 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
this is a joke right?
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:20 pm
No, this isn’t a joke. I think is named Pikachurin because they discovered it by analyzing mice genes that function in the formation of retinal visual cells that sense light, also the protein “speeds up” the impulse and creates a faster response time. Since Pikachu is the Electric “mouse” Pokemon and is known to be fast then that makes sense.
According to: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20080722TDY02306.htm
July 25th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
This is so funny! … I can already hear the news report: “… our top story tonight; many children in Japan have become addicted to the protein Pikachurin, beleiving it would give them the abilities of popular anime character Pikachu.”
July 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
So I’m pretty late here, but this doesn’t really surprise me. There’s a protein named the Sonic hedgehog homolog[1], and a gene originally named Pokemon[2]. Considering that gamers and otaku are the next generation of scientists and researchers, we can probably expect more of this type of thing.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbtb7