Editing Shmoo (section)

==<!--In science-->Eponyms==
[[File:Shmoos s cerevisiae.jpg|thumb|''[[Saccharomyces cerevisiae]]'' [[Mating of yeast|yeast mating]] type '''a''' with shmoo responding to '''α'''-factor]]
The term "shmoo" has entered the English language, defining highly technical concepts in at least four separate fields of [[science]]:
* "[[Shmoo plot]]" is a technical term relating to the graphical display of test results in [[electrical engineering]], dating back at least to 1966.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Sensitivity Function in Variability Analysis |first=Charles |last=Belove |journal=IEEE Transactions on Reliability |volume=R-15 |issue=2 |year=1966 |pages=70–76 |doi=10.1109/TR.1966.5217603}}</ref> The name most likely arose because the shape of the two-dimensional plots often resembled a shmoo. The term is also a verb: to "shmoo" means to run the test.
* In [[microbiology]], the shmoo's uncanny resemblance to budding [[mating of yeast|yeast]]—combined with its near-limitless usefulness—has led to the character's adoption as a mascot of sorts for scientists studying yeast as a [[model organism]] for [[genetics]] and [[cell biology]]. In fact, the cellular bulge that is produced by a [[haploid]] yeast cell as a response to a pheromone from the opposite mating type (either {{typo|a}} or '''[[alpha|α]]'''-factor) is referred to as a "shmoo", because cells that are undergoing mating and present this particular structure resemble the cartoon character.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcj.com/hoodedutilitarian/2010/12/strange-windows-keeping-up-with-the-goonses-part-3/#more-12736 |title=Strange Windows: Keeping up with the Goonses (part 3) |first=Alex |last=Buchet |date=18 December 2010 |website=The Hooded Utilitarian |accessdate=2012-12-10}}</ref> The whole process is known to biologists as "shmooing". Shmoos are essential; without them, we would have neither [[bread]] nor [[beer]]. The word "shmoo" has appeared in nearly 700 science publications since 1974; it is used in labs studying the bread- and beer-making species ''[[Saccharomyces cerevisiae]]''.<ref>{{cite news | title=Stupid Science Word of the Month: Shmoo |first=Jessica |last=Marshall |journal=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]] |date=November 2007 |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2007/nov/stupid-science-word-of-the-month-shmoo}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref>
* [[Echinoderm]] biologists use "shmoo" (often misspelled "schmoo") to refer to a very simple, highly derived, blob-shaped [[larva]] found in some [[sea urchin]]s (e.g. Wray 1996<ref>{{cite journal |first=Gregory A. |last=Wray |title=Parallel Evolution of Nonfeeding Larvae in Echinoids |journal=Systematic Biology |volume=45 |issue=3 |year=1996 |pages=308–322 |doi=10.1093/sysbio/45.3.308 |doi-access=free }}</ref>).
* The Mouse Head Mesemb, ''[[Muiria hortensae]]'', a monotypic genus of succulent plant in the Aizoaceae, is also known as the Shmoo Plant. It is native to a small area of the Succulent Karoo of South Africa.
* In [[bird collections]], skin specimens prepared without bills are often called "shmoos".<ref name="Winkler">{{cite journal |last1=Winkler |first1=Kevin |title=Obtaining, preserving, and preparing bird specimens |journal=Journal of Field Ornithology |date=Apr 28, 2000 |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=250–297 |doi=10.1648/0273-8570-71.2.250 |s2cid=86281124 }}</ref>
* It has been used in discussions of [[socioeconomics]], for instance. In [[economics]], a "[[widget (economics)|widget]]" is any material good that is produced through labor (extracted, refined, manufactured, or assembled) from a finite resource—in contrast to a "shmoo", which is a material good that reproduces itself and is captured or bred as an economic activity (the original shmoo lives and reproduces without requiring any material sustenance). "If shmoos really existed, they would be a '[[free good]]'." [[Erik Olin Wright]] uses the "parable of the shmoo" to introduce discussion of class structure and economics.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YzuLVijEFbgC&q=parable+of+the+shmoo&pg=PA4 |last=Wright |first=Erik Olin |author-link=Erik Olin Wright |title=Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis |year=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |accessdate=2012-12-10|isbn=9780521556460 }}</ref>
* In the field of [[particle physics]], "shmoo" refers to a high energy [[cosmic ray]] survey instrument used at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] for the [[Cygnus X-3]] Sky Survey performed at the LAMPF (Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility) grounds. At one time, more than one hundred white "shmoo" detectors were sprinkled around the accelerator beamstop area and adjacent mesa to capture subatomic cosmic ray particles emitted from the [[Cygnus (constellation)|Cygnus]] [[constellation]]. The detectors housed [[scintillator]]s and [[photomultiplier]]s in an array that gave the detector its distinctive shmoo shape. The particle accelerator [[Tevatron]] at [[Fermilab]] houses superconducting magnets that produce ice formations that also resembled shmoos.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Higgins |first=William S. |url=https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdfs/201206/s2b.pdf |title=Shmoos of the Tevatron |magazine=Symmetry |date=June 2012 |accessdate=2012-12-10}}</ref>
* In medicine, the "Shmoo sign" refers to the appearance of a prominent, rounded left ventricle and dilated aorta on a plain AP [[chest radiograph]], giving the appearance of a Shmoo.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radiopaedia.org/articles/shmoo-sign |title=Shmoo Sign |accessdate=2018-07-16 |first1=Daniel J. |last1=Bell |first2=Sahith |last2=Reddy |display-authors=etal |website=Radiopaedia|date=10 November 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Brant|first1=William E.|last2=Helms|first2=Clyde A. |title-link=Fundamentals of Diagnostic Radiology |title=Fundamentals of Diagnostic Radiology |publisher=[[Lippincott Williams & Wilkins|LWW]] |isbn=978-1-60831-911-4|date=2012-03-20}}</ref>

<!--Not part of above list because this is citing the fictional creature directly and '''not''' adopting the word as a technical term.-->
Applied conversely, the shmoo has been cited as a hypothetical example of the potential [[falsifiability]] of [[natural selection]] as a key driving mechanism of [[biological evolution]]. That is, such a poorly adapted species could not possibly evolve via natural selection, so if it were to exist, it would falsify the theory.<ref>
{{cite book|author-link=Steven Pinker|first=Steven |last=Pinker|title-link=The Language Instinct |title=The Language Instinct |page=358|location=New York|publisher=William Morrow|year=1994|isbn=0-688-12141-1|chapter=The Big Bang|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7dryHvwDiMC&q=pinker+language+instinct+shmoo&pg=PT792}} {{cite book|author-link=Daniel Dennett|first=Daniel|last=Dennett|title-link=Darwin's Dangerous Idea|title=Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life|page=[https://archive.org/details/darwinsdangerous0000denn/page/330 330]|chapter=Controversies Contained|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvRqtnpVotwC&q=daniel+dennett+shmoo+darwin+shmoo&pg=PA330|year=1995|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-0-684-82471-0|location=New York}}</ref>