3140: Biology Department - Revision history

195.21.95.178: /* Explanation */

2026-02-03T11:49:14Z

‎Explanation

TheusafBOT: Reverted edit 387707 by Anonymous1279358478 to 387135

2025-09-30T02:10:11Z

Reverted edit 387707 by Anonymous1279358478 to 387135

Anonymous1279358478 at 01:51, 30 September 2025

2025-09-30T01:51:16Z

82.132.245.179: /* Explanation */ Nicify the wikilink markup/appearance.

2025-09-19T09:20:55Z

‎Explanation: Nicify the wikilink markup/appearance.

Miamiclay: /* Explanation */

2025-09-19T07:02:17Z

‎Explanation

Anonymous1279358478: /* Explanation */

2025-09-15T14:03:26Z

‎Explanation

92.17.62.87: /* Explanation */ And they might actually be right, and yet the public ignore them anyway... ;)

2025-09-15T11:45:17Z

‎Explanation: And they might actually be right, and yet the public ignore them anyway... ;)

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

2025-09-15T08:33:47Z

‎Explanation

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

2025-09-15T08:08:08Z

‎Explanation

101.100.148.176: /* Explanation */

2025-09-15T00:29:46Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 * Adactylidium mites [https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-strangest-life-cycles-in-nature are already pregnant when they are born].
 * {{w|Strepsiptera}} offers endoparasitism plus traumatic insemination.
 Additionally, "bugs" can be informally used to refer to a whole range of contagious {{w|pathogen}}s (often bacteria or viruses) that are ''also'' likely to be studied by a biology department, and potentially just as existentially horrifying with increased understanding, for example [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326844/ zombie neutrophils].

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ==Explanation==
-Signs (such as [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-factory-safety-sign-showing-days-since-last-accident-29336722.html this one]) in industrial workplaces, typically counting days since a safety incident occurred, are a common trope. They are also referenced in [[363: Reset]]. In this comic,  the biology department has such a sign to indicate how often they discover things about bugs that are horrifying, suggesting that this is not only a relatively common occurrence, but one that the department thinks the general public needs to be aware of. The sign being shown at 3 days may suggest that they probably find these bugs often.
+Signs (such as [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-factory-safety-sign-showing-days-since-last-accident-29336722.html this one]) in industrial workplaces, typically counting days since a safety incident occurred, are a common trope. They are also referenced in [[363: Reset]]. In this comic, the biology department has such a sign to indicate how often they discover things about bugs that are horrifying, suggesting that this is not only a relatively common occurrence, but one that the department thinks the general public needs to be aware of. The sign being shown at 3 days may suggest that they probably find these bugs often.
 Insects and other arthropods (informally, "bugs") can have strange life cycles, some of which are truly horrifying. Some examples include

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ==Explanation==
-Signs (such as [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-factory-safety-sign-showing-days-since-last-accident-29336722.html this one]) in industrial workplaces, typically counting days since a safety incident occurred, are a common trope. They are also referenced in [[363: Reset]]. In this comic, the biology department has such a sign to indicate how often they discover things about bugs that are horrifying, suggesting that this is not only a relatively common occurrence, but one that the department thinks the general public needs to be aware of. The sign being shown at 3 days may suggest that they probably find these bugs often.
+Signs (such as [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-factory-safety-sign-showing-days-since-last-accident-29336722.html this one]) in industrial workplaces, typically counting days since a safety incident occurred, are a common trope. They are also referenced in [[363: Reset]]. In this comic,  the biology department has such a sign to indicate how often they discover things about bugs that are horrifying, suggesting that this is not only a relatively common occurrence, but one that the department thinks the general public needs to be aware of. The sign being shown at 3 days may suggest that they probably find these bugs often.
 Insects and other arthropods (informally, "bugs") can have strange life cycles, some of which are truly horrifying. Some examples include

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 * ''Messor ibericus'' ants rely on cross-species hybrids for their worker caste. In order to produce these hybrids, M. ibericus queens will sometimes [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w give birth to cloned males from another species.]. Since this news circulated widely a few days before this comic was released, these ants may be what inspired [[Randall]].
 * Adactylidium mites [https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-strangest-life-cycles-in-nature are already pregnant when they are born].
-* Strepsiptera [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsiptera] offers endoparasitism plus traumatic insemination.
+* {{w|Strepsiptera}} offers endoparasitism plus traumatic insemination.
 Additionally, "bugs" can be informally used to refer to a whole range of contagious {{w|pathogen}}s (often bacteria or viruses) that are ''also'' likely to be studied by a biology department, and potentially just as existentially horrifying with increased understanding, for example [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326844/ zombie neutrophils].

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 * ''Messor ibericus'' ants rely on cross-species hybrids for their worker caste. In order to produce these hybrids, M. ibericus queens will sometimes [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w give birth to cloned males from another species.]. Since this news circulated widely a few days before this comic was released, these ants may be what inspired [[Randall]].
 * Adactylidium mites [https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-strangest-life-cycles-in-nature are already pregnant when they are born].
 Additionally, "bugs" can be informally used to refer to a whole range of contagious {{w|pathogen}}s (often bacteria or viruses) that are ''also'' likely to be studied by a biology department, and potentially just as existentially horrifying with increased understanding, for example [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326844/ zombie neutrophils].

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Explanation==
-This comic has a biology department which discovers things about bugs that are horrifying and updates a sign on it. The sign being shown at 3 days shows that they probably find these bugs often.
 Insects and other arthropods (informally, "bugs") can have strange life cycles, some of which are truly horrifying. Some examples include
@@ Line 23: / Line 24: @@
 Additionally, "bugs" can be informally used to refer to a whole range of contagious {{w|pathogen}}s (often bacteria or viruses) that are ''also'' likely to be studied by a biology department, and potentially just as existentially horrifying with increased understanding, for example [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326844/ zombie neutrophils].
-The sign in this comic implies that this biology department discovers such things so often that they have a frequently-updated sign to document it. This is not usual, and is the main joke of this comic. Signs of this nature, such as [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-factory-safety-sign-showing-days-since-last-accident-29336722.html this one], are common{{acn}} in industrial workplaces and typically count days since a safety incident occurred. They are also referenced in [[363: Reset]].
+The title text refers to a notice board from the Linguistics Department. It points out that during the times that the Biology Department's sign displays the number '1', there's an inconsistency with the plural word "days", and describes how long it has been since someone in Linguistics noticed the problem. Since the problem is most evident when the Biology Department's sign is displaying the number 1, it's likely that the number on the Linguistics Department's sign will mostly be the number on the Biology Department's sign minus one. (If it's talking about when Linguistics ''first'' noticed the problem, this will always be longer than the time shown on the Biology Department's sign, which is occasionally reset, unless everyone in Linguistics somehow forgets about the problem... but this is unlikely, because these signs do not usually refer to a single fixed event). The Linguistics sign has both a changeable number and a changeable word for the time period, so perhaps the linguists avoided the same 'error' on their own sign by allowing for the use of a "day" insert. But it might also allow "minute"/"minutes" or "hour"/"hours", depending on how quickly the sign was put up after the problem with the Biology sign was noticed, with a suitably responsive sign-caretaker. Eventually it might be changed to longer periods such as month(s), year(s), etc. This could be a reference to [[363: Reset]] in which someone who updates the sign fills the requirement for resetting the sign.
 This comic visually resembles [[1758: Astrophysics]], which also features a sign showing the motto of some kind of science department.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * {{w|honeypot ants}}, some of which are force-fed until their abdomens swell enormously, are used as living food storage containers for the rest of the colony
 * {{w|Colobopsis explodens|exploding ants}} protect their colony from invaders by exploding their bodies to spray a toxin on their enemies
-* female {{w|praying mantises}} [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/praying-mantis-hanky-panky-is-way-weirder-than-you-think eat the males while they mate], though mating can continue while the eating is happening
+* female {{w|praying mantises}} [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/praying-mantis-hanky-panky-is-way-weirder-than-you-think sometimes eat the males while they mate], though mating can continue while the eating is happening
 * ''Messor ibericus'' ants rely on cross-species hybrids for their worker caste. In order to produce these hybrids, M. ibericus queens will sometimes [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w give birth to cloned males from another species.]. Since this news circulated widely a few days before this comic was released, these ants may be what inspired [[Randall]].