New Fern Species Named for Lady Gaga

Botanists at Duke University have named a newly identified genus of fern, and consequently 19 species within the genus, after Lady Gaga, the New York Times reports. The fern, found in Arizona, Texas, Mexico and Central and South America, has “somewhat fluid definitions of gender,” as it reproduces by spores that can grow to be male, female or both. A graduate student also found the sequence GAGA in the fern’s DNA base pairs. The science behind the ferns inspired the botanists.

“We wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression,” said Kathleen Pryer, director of Duke’s herbarium and professor of biology. “And as we started to consider it, the ferns themselves gave us more reasons why it was a good choice.”READ MORE

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New Fern Species Named for Lady Gaga  was originally published on mycolumbusjack.com