
An unpaid UK researcher saved the Japanese seaweed industry (2017) - tosh
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/how-an-unpaid-uk-researcher-saved-the-japanese-seaweed-industry/
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fnord77
> Nori contains toxic metals (arsenic and cadmium), whose levels are highly
> variable among nori products. It also contains amphipod allergens that can
> cause serious allergic reactions, especially in highly sensitized
> crustacean-allergic people. Therefore, daily consumption of high amounts of
> dried nori is discouraged

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori)

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pvaldes
> The reason nobody had been able to find nori seeds was because they were
> looking for the wrong plant.

Algae by definition are unable to produce seeds. "Seeds" here is jargon with a
different meaning.

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inflatableDodo
I have the seed of an idea that they might be using a lay taxonomy here. Or is
it the germ of a thought?

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ggm
Erasmus Darwin was way ahead of you. He weaved them into erotic poetry...

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inflatableDodo
The lunatic.

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bkyan
Wait, so nori isn't actually a plant? (As far as I know, algae are not
plants...)

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banana_smoothie
Correct! Seaweed is a complex algae. Although much less common, seagrasses are
true plants (which evolved from terrestrial plants like 100 million years
ago). I can't think of any other submerged marine plants, and some limited
google searches are only giving me mangrove forests as additional marine
plants.

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inflatableDodo
>Despite being fired for getting married, she became the first elected
president of the British Phycological Society in 1952. Today, Drew-Baker is
known in Japan as "the mother of the sea," and every year a festival is held
in her honor in Uto City.

I wonder if she gets extra recognition from at least half of the Japanese
population, for the circumstances surrounding her firing, given that being
fired for daring to be both female and married is still apparently the
established practice in many Japanese companies today.

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gryson
That's not the case at all. Women certainly quit their jobs due to poor
maternity support and childcare services, as well as the managerial glass
ceiling, but I don't know how anyone can believe that Japanese labor law would
allow for the standard practice of firing women when they get married.

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inflatableDodo
Japanese labor law does not allow it. But Japanese labor law is often not
upheld. Japanese law does not allow the education system to systematically
downgrade the results of female students to stop them becoming doctors either,
which has gone on for years.

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gryson
You're referencing a scandal unrelated to your original point that sparked
massive outrage when it was uncovered.

Where is your evidence that it is "established practice in many Japanese
companies today" to fire women when they get married?

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inflatableDodo
Through my friend Asami, mostly. To be more accurate, you are encouraged to
get married, the dismissal happens when you get pregnant.

Look up the term 'matahara'.

