You have to guess. There are no prizes except my warm congratulations.
What is this?
September 26, 2012 • 4:29 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
A duck maybe
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?
Haha – ACE!
“She turned me into a newt… I got better!”
😀
so J you knew the answer all along and kept us going or is J Jerry’s other alias?
I don’t think Jerry’s a fan of sock puppetry 😛 I assure you I’m a distinct entity!
The caustic duck.
That’s just your basic Mallard.
My favorite part of this is that you didn’t put it arrogantly. Always leaving open some small room for doubt and/or error is humble. =^_^=
Now that you say it – I thought it was a Brine Shrimp.
It’s a sodium oxy-hy-drake
Does it has to do with the effect of duck droppings on the pH of ponds? The acidity goes up….as when you add NaOH
A basic mallardy?
Duck Soda?
Surely caus-duck soda?
You beat me to it.
Of course it is… But I had Quacklime
A simple canard, maybe?
A mallard reaction?
Doesn’t seem quite right, I’m sure there’s a better answer.
Good answer. I don’t have one but since others have posted explanations to other esoteric answers, there’s a Maillard reaction in biochemistry, involving the amino group of amino acids and the aldehydic carbonyl of reducing sugars that’s relevant in bread crust browning and certain pathologies. Since it requires an un-ionized amine to attack the carbonyl carbon, it’s enhanced at elevated (basic) pH.
You must have spent many happy hours playing with your chemistry set!!
Actually, even tho my uncle was a chemist (and on the Manhattan Project), and even had a paper in J Biol Chem, I never had a chemistry set as a kid.
But, I’ve spent many happy hours doing chemical (Edman) protein sequencing.
“Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
I’m not sure I’ve got the hang of this!
It looks like a duck, it may quack like a duck, but it’s a lye.
+1
Good place to put this. I was going to say a lying quack.
Sodium Hyduckside? I’m stumped.
Sodium Hyduckside?
It’s a basic mallard.
There is a ‘Mallard Basic’ in computer programming (well, historical computer programming!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallard_BASIC
But surely that is too geeky as answer?
Just your basic duck.
+1
Brilliant! All I could come up with was “lye down”.
Duck soap? (Not to be confused with the Marx Bros movie.)
/@
+1
Your basic duck?
I vote for this one.
I posted as fast as possible and didn’t see that Ben beat me to it (by 4 minutes) His answer is better anyway – the “just” really ties the room together, to borrow a phrase.
The Dude abides…
It’s a creationist giving his scientific opinion on evolution.
Duck soap?
Aren’t Chinese thousand year eggs made with sodium hydroxide? And they’re often made using duck eggs. So is this a thousand year duck? Looks pretty good for his age.
You say “What’s this?” and I say its a photo of a duck with NaOH printed on its body. Now, you can’t possibly say its not the right answer. Can you?
Of course I can! Who’s the boss of this website? 🙂
[i]Who’s the boss of this website?[/i]
You mean blog.
I say it’s photoshopped. I can tell by the pixels, and I have seen many pixels in my lifetime.
“Whose the boss of this website?”
Ultimately? Ceiling cat, not you. And it is She, the all mighty, who controls the site through you, acting on the quantum level. And you can’t prove me wrong. So there, take that one on the chin.
That duck does not have NaOH printed on it’s body, it’s photoshopped on.
Is it ducking out of chemistry?
To a Sophisticated Theologian (TM) it might be yet another proof of God.
A lye deduckter.
This has got to be the right answer — it gets my vote.
“We have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands.” Douglas Adams.
Which would make it a lye Anas (sounds somewhat like Linnaeas)?
Not sure what it is now (although I like the Mallard BASIC answer), but I know what you’ll have if you leave duck, NaOH and water together for any length of time: a geoduck.
Ha Ha!
It’s a recipe for century eggs,or “pidan”: the ph of the egg is raised, turning the yolk green, the white brown and releasing some interesting flavours. Never knowingly used as quack medicine. I thank you.
Hmm, that’s what I got making pickled eggs, by lowering the pH.
I’m almost tempted to try “pidan” for myself. “Interesting flavours” doesn’t actually imply “nice”, does it?
A fowl lye?
Not bad.
Sodium Hy-duck-side?
Drake’s Equation?
Are you suggesting it is an alien?
It’s an anagram for NOaH, and he clearly missed the boat.
Anatogram
(classics pedant here)
Very good! For etymological reasons, go to the top of the class!
After attempting to arrive at an answer by in-ducked-ions, I have de-ducked that it is a posed duck ergo proper duck.
LOL.
Posed duck… you slay me.
LOL!
Lyeing like a duck to water?
Let sleeping ducks lie? Gawd I am so not clever.
Has no one actually said base canard yet? Or are we intentionally dancing round this & I’ve spoiled the joke? I’m sorry 🙁
This must be it!
Base canard is the right answer! Congratulations to “J”, who’s clearly savvy as he/she shares my initial.
There were some good answers, though: my favorite was sodium hy-duckside. Never underestimate the cleverness of readers here!
Sadly, all the other answers, funny as they were, are WRONG!
And perchance what you had for dinner last night, Prof. Coyne?
That would likely have the legend “C6H8O7” rather than “NaOH” …
/@
Canard a l’orange?
Oui!
/@
Non. Ceci n’est pas un canard. C’est un mensonge!
b&
I canardly believe it.
/@
^Thread win
Glad I wasn’t drinking coffee when I read that! Nice one!
No joke. I barely managed to duck that one, myself.
b&
Lame…
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Lame duck?
Most ducks would be lame after being doused in sodium hydroxide….
b&
J is short for James rather than Jerry I’m afraid!
I’ll ruin this animal for you: http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/duck-dog-mask.jpg
So, is it “the masked dog”?
Lydia?
A Soda Quacker!
+1!
Damn, that’s a good one, too!
The brilliance of WEIT followers cannot be misunderestimated.
Lye a duck on water?
Lye a duck – the Marx Bros movie?
birdlime
It’s Nanjing Salted Duck,a traditional chinese food..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Salted_Duck
Lye down?
*applauds*
The decoy is a lye.
No, the drake is a lye!
Let sitting ducks lye?
Another lye on the right wing?
Toilet Duck.
Lye & duck. My immediate reaction was crock-o-duck.
No such luck.
A cocodruck? Just kidding!
“The common drake (Anas boschas), after the breeding-season, is well known to lose his male plumage for a period of three months”
Darwin, Descent of Man Ch. 13
Ducky Leachs
A base canard.
…Yeah, already mentioned upthread.
I know that Jerry is king here, but I really gotta go with another right wing lye as suggested by JScarry.
All I can say is that I hope Ducktor Coyne has a safe journey !
An animal that has never been in my kitchen?
After breeding, wildfowl shed all their flight feathers at the same time, which prevents them from flying for a short period of time (3-7 weeks) and survive by keeping in cover on marshes or at sea…
hence the NaOH sign on the wing I guess.
Ok my bad, I thought NaCl instead of NaOH and it would have to be on the tail anyway … so the mystery still stands
Salt water Daffy?
Famous race car driver Ari Lye N. Duck. L
Has Ken Ham launched a lye-bill action against
Jerry?
It’s Daffy Duck’s brother! 🙂
That’s a dethpickable lye! You take it back!
…it’s his father’s wife’s mother’s daughter’s son.
Cheers,
b&
Thanks! I like your blog 🙂
Erm…you’re welcome…but this is Jerry Coyne’s Web site, not my blog….
b&
Sodium Hydroxide
Avian clostridium, (initially it was thought that alkali poisoning caustic); not pleasant, in fact it is Anasty Mallardy
Its the new terror group
Al Kali-duck
What is the difference between a duck?
One of its legs is both the same!
A base canard (I didn’t look probably it has been said)…?
Still, I pat myself on the back getting this not being a native speaker 🙂 (but a chemist and I speak some French)
ANASty burn!
Ow!
There won’t be an update and an answer to this question?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about binary options arbitrage.
Regards