moonwise: (lab rat)
moonwise ([personal profile] moonwise) wrote2009-10-29 12:10 pm
Entry tags:

Today's nerd funny

My manager: "Have you ever worked with bilirubin?"

Me: *blankly* "Who?"



(note: "bilirubin" is pronounced like "Billy Rubin.")

[identity profile] jaina.livejournal.com 2009-10-29 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
*rimshot*

[identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com 2009-10-30 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
lol. What's not coming across is that I didn't immediately realize that my manager was not asking me whether I worked with the theoretical person Billy Rubin.
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com 2009-10-30 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Doesn't it mean bile-red or something like that? The roots are there. But yes, it's a silly word.

[identity profile] little-licks.livejournal.com 2009-10-30 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Isn't bilirubin the pigment that gives feces its lovely rich earthy color? :)

[identity profile] arafel.livejournal.com 2009-10-30 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
The wiki says (and the wiki is always true!)
In the liver it is conjugated to glucuronic acid, making it soluble in water. Much of it goes into the bile and thus out into the small intestine. Some of the conjugated bilirubin remains in the large intestine and is metabolised by colonic bacteria to urobilinogen, which is further metabolized to stercobilinogen, and finally oxidised to stercobilin. This stercobilin gives feces its brown color. Some of the urobilinogen is reabsorbed and excreted in the urine along with an oxidized form, urobilin.

[identity profile] fireceremony.livejournal.com 2009-10-30 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
:D nice one! :D