Hey, want to hear a joke? What's the difference between Lady Gaga and a newly discovered species of fern? Well, one is a leafy, vascular plant that reproduces with spores and tends to attract outdoor critters of all sorts… and the other, um, is a fern? Sorry, I'm not very good at jokes. You know who else isn't good with jokes? The scientists at Duke University, who've been a little busy discovering a new genus of fern and naming not one but 19 different species after… you guessed it… Lady Gaga.
As you'll (maybe) recall from high school biology, fern spores can grow into male, female or even bi-curious plants. Make sense now? "We think that her second album, Born This Way, is enormously empowering, especially for disenfranchised people and communities like LGBT, ethnic groups, women…" explains Duke biology professor Kathleen Pryer, citing Gaga's "fervent defense of equality and individual expression" as the reasoning behind the idea.
The species names include "Gaga germanotta" (i.e. Lady Gaga's real last name) and "Gaga monstraparva," the Latin translation of "little monsters." Double extra awesome bonus? Apparently the scientists also discovered that the letters GAGA appear in the plants' DNA sequence. Don't ask me to explain why or how that works, just agree that it's pretty awesome.
Anyone else seriously looking forward to growing some Lady Gaga in the front garden? Let me know in the comments section below!
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[Billboard.com]
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