Talk:2749: Lymphocytes

Battery cells have nothing to do with cell phones. The "cell" in cell phone is short for "cellular" and refers to the communication cells around each tower. Barmar (talk) 03:09, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

And that's short for "sell you our phone" where the contract lets you buy it over an extended time that ends about the same time the spiffier replacement model is available. 172.69.70.209 10:42, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

I was originally thinking the CD4+ would be a reference to Call of Duty 4 and onwards, in which players scream (insults?) at each other while playing. But the feeling has subsided, after considering it. Mentioning it here, though, in leiu of adding it as 'factual'. 172.70.162.47 06:06, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

It should have bee Natural Born Killer Cells, but some opportunities were always going to be missed... --172.71.178.187 07:16, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

"Gamma-Delta T cells" being "unknown/unclassified" could be a reference to Star Trek, which has the galaxy divided into 4 quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. The Delta Quadrant (setting of Start Trek Voyager) and the Gamma Quadrant (seen in Start Trek Deep Space Nine) are unexplored and uncharted from the Federation's point of view. 162.158.129.51 09:23, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Doesn't say "unclassified" but "classified". I don't think the Star Trek quadrants are referred to as "classified". Inquirer (talk) 02:29, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

I had in mind just general "above Top Secret" classifications (or reputed ones) like "Omega Level, Burn before reading" or somesuch. Either that or perhaps 'Greek system' fraternities/sororities and secret societies in general (perhaps there's a Gamma-Delta-Tau, or similar, out there) which seem to be a US cultural thing that seems ripe for Randall to spoof about.

Bear in mind that he's taking (mostly) real naming conventions and just explaining them funnily (hence why not "Natural Born Killer" cells, mentioned above, which was my first thoughts on reading as well), so shoehorning a Trek reference in without making it more explicitly Trekkie in the 'free description' bit seems a bit like it wasn't even the point.

My money's on the security level, as an intention. At least until someone comes up with a better cultural reference that fits better but that I hadn't known/remembered on the initial reading. 172.70.85.57 13:33, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

So who is/are "the world's coolest immunologist(s)," who got to name Natural Killer cells (NK cells)? Doctoral student Rolf Kiessling and postdoctoral fellow Hugh Pross may have found them, but did they get to name them? Likewise, who is/are the "significantly less cool immunologist(s)" who named ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells? TCMits (talk) 15:20, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Their original paper describing them referred to them as "natural" killer cells, so their use of quotes implies that it was a new title they had come up with. Ahecht (talk) 16:13, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Definitely the "coolness" factor is in the naming, not in the discovering. All the discoverers are equally "cool". But coming up with the name "Natural Killer Cells" is orders of magnitude cooler than ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 (blaaah). Rtanenbaum (talk) 16:11, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the Gamma-Delta cells being "unknown/classified" seems to be a reference to US Army Delta force commandos who are tasked with top-secret highly classified missions that would be unknown even to other military or political officials.(corrected thanks to Ahecht) Rtanenbaum (talk) 16:11, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

The comic says "unknown/classified", not "unknown/unclassified". Ahecht (talk) 16:16, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Coincidentally on the same day this comic was released two immunologists received the Paul Ehrlich Prize for their work on the evolution of the "learning" immune system. No clue if this is relevant, not my field of expertise. ;-) --198.41.242.166 05:29, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Whoever added the D&D references to D8 and D4, thank you. Was totally unexpected, and as a DM, I laughed so hard I cried. 172.70.126.232 13:54, 15 March 2023 (UTC)