> This is surely old news to folks who specialise in mitochondria
from Wiktionary:
> mitochondrion, Coined in German by Carl Benda in 1898, from Ancient Greek μίτος (mítos, “thread”) + χονδρίον (khondríon), diminutive of χόνδρος (khóndros, “grain, morsel”)
from Wikipedia article on Carl Benda:
> In an 1898 experiment using crystal violet as a specific stain, Benda first became aware of the existence of hundreds of these tiny bodies in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and assumed that they reinforced the cell structure. Because of their tendency to form long chains, he coined the name mitochondria ("thread granules").
So yeah, I guess this is known ever since mitochondria was first discovered, definitely "old news". I can't understand why it is always depicted as bean-shaped.
from Wiktionary:
> mitochondrion, Coined in German by Carl Benda in 1898, from Ancient Greek μίτος (mítos, “thread”) + χονδρίον (khondríon), diminutive of χόνδρος (khóndros, “grain, morsel”)
from Wikipedia article on Carl Benda:
> In an 1898 experiment using crystal violet as a specific stain, Benda first became aware of the existence of hundreds of these tiny bodies in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and assumed that they reinforced the cell structure. Because of their tendency to form long chains, he coined the name mitochondria ("thread granules").
So yeah, I guess this is known ever since mitochondria was first discovered, definitely "old news". I can't understand why it is always depicted as bean-shaped.