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Neobuthus Factorio (wikipedia.org)
92 points by jryb on April 17, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments


Just one footnote. Not everybody must know taxonomy and we all have different skills

Scientific names were created to be universal language. To achieve that they have a few rules that grant that everybody can communicate.

The genus is Neobuthus ("new scorpion") but the species can't be Neobuthus Factorio, is "Neobuthus factorio", the second part must be written in lower case.



Apparently Sonic Hedgehog can be responsible for brain tumours in small children: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/childrens-canc...

I don't mind cutesy naming conventions most of the time, but this must make for some rather unfortunate conversations between Doctors and parents.


More generally, if you were looking for "lists of list of X named after Y":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_etymologies

Although that page doesn't have my favorite list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_...



> The species was named after Factorio, a video game created by the son of one of the researchers who described the species.

There's a fine line between "Here's a good idea my son came up with!" and "This is something that benefits someone related to me". There's not much to call home about in this case of course - this scorpion's name is as niche as it gets, it's just a thought.


In this case I think the game's fame benefits the scorpion more than vice versa.


> There's a fine line between "Here's a good idea my son came up with!" and "This is something that benefits someone related to me".

Either is fine when you find a new species and get to choose the name.


I don't think that played a big role of the game becoming successful though ;)

I find it much more fascinating that the father of the creator of Factorio is a scientist though.


Nothing a good wall of laser turrets can't handle


It's all about the flamethrower turrets, man.


Assuming there is enough science to research turrets.


I horribly misread this momentarily, but now I'm imagining what "research turrets" could look like. Red science powered turrets? :)


Every time it shoots something, it produces a little bit of research.


Anyone remember when the aliens dropped alien-artifacts, needed to make purple-science?

Uggghhhhhhhh. The game is so much better today than where it started (and it already was a good game back then... crazy how much all the little improvements helped).


If not, time for bed!


You got enough power for all those lasers? Looks like that coal field is running low!


Literally unplayable.


The pattern on the creature’s back resembles the game’s iconic sprite for the conveyor belt, and the creature itself also resembles a Biter, the game’s insect-like antagonists.


Can they survive atomic bomb strikes? That would make me worried.




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