The Newly Discovered Salazar's Pit Viper and The Intersection of Science and Pop Culture
The Salazar’s pit viper as seen in the CNN article.
Recently, the herpetology world has welcomed the discovery of a new species of pit viper named after Salazar Slytherin from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. The Salazar’s pit viper (Trimeresurus salazar) is characterized by its bright green coloration and orange stripe down its sides in the male of the species and is a member of the understudied genus Trimeresurus. This particular genus of snakes from southeast Asia known for their cryptic coloration and patterns, which means they blend in very well to their environment are hard to find. Most of the research that has been done on these pit vipers has been concerned with the medicinal use of their hemotoxic venom and little work has been done to explore the secret lives of these mysterious animals. Since these snakes are so difficult to find, their genus continues to grow and at the time of writing there are at least 48 species within this group, including the Salazar’s pit viper.
The mainstream and scientific news sources covered the discovery of this new snake very differently from one another and emphasizing opposite parts of the story. The scientific news sources, like Smithsonian Magazine, focused on the discovery of the snake and the characteristics of the genus to which it belongs, while the mainstream news sources, like CNN, largely used their article to tell the story of Salazar Slytherin. This difference is troubling and almost undervalues the science and intellect of readers of the mainstream news sources. By focusing on the Harry Potter reference the mainstream media sends the message that the important part of the discovery is scientists referencing pop culture and not the discovery of a new species in a world that is so used to news of impending ecological disaster. If one dives into the comment sections of one of these articles that largely ignores the scientific significance of this discovery, there is an abundance of people talking about how scientists are immature for daring to reference pop culture in the naming of species and I believe this a result of the way the discovery has been covered.
Tweet showing scientists being called “immature.”
Naming new species after pop culture icons is not a new thing, and is a good way for scientists to get the public interested in their research. We live in a world where the stereotype for a scientist is a boring person with little to no interests outside of their own research, but in my experience, scientists are just as goofy and animated as any other person you may meet. Scientists do not exist in a bubble separate from pop culture, which is why we see new discoveries with names that reference pop culture icons and events. By merging the worlds of pop culture and science, researchers are making their discoveries more accessible to the general population which may lead to increased interest and funding for future projects. Unfortunately, when the mainstream media focuses solely on the pop culture reference instead of the science the actual research is undermined and results in comment sections that criticize the maturity of scientists.
What needs to be emphasized is that scientists exist in and are influenced by the world of pop culture just like the general population, and there is nothing wrong with that. The Salazar’s pit viper is not the first and will not be the last new species named as a reference to pop culture, and that has been a theme throughout the timeline of science. Names that reference something that is popular allows new people to break into a subject that they may not have been interested in before and that is important. Perhaps the name of this snake is the part of the reason someone decided to break into the science of herpetology, and that is a net positive. I hope to one day live in a world where science is not criticized for names that reference pop culture, and news sources actually emphasize the research in their reporting on these new species. Scientists are no more immature than artists, writers, and other creators that brought us the icons that are raised to pop culture legend.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimeresurus
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/world/salazar-slytherin-pit-viper-trnd/index.html
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/salazars-pit-viper-08353.html
https://zse.pensoft.net/article/48431/
Pensoft Publishers. "Welcome to the House of Slytherin: Salazar's pit viper, a new green pit viper
from India." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 April 2020.
