How "Vegetative Electron Microscopy" Ended Up In Our AI—And What We Can Learn From It
Somewhere between a botched translation, a sloppy scan job, and the boundless optimism of artificial intelligence, a new scientific term was born: vegetative electron microscopy.
Sounds impressive. Like something you'd need goggles for. Or at least a lab coat. But the truth is, it's a nonsense phrase. A mistake. A glitch in the matrix. And it ended up in over two dozen published research papers.
Even AI language models—those tireless, word-churning, grammar-hugging assistants—have repeated it with all the misplaced confidence of a teenager using "literally" wrong.
Which raises the question: How the hell did this happen?
