While fusing my interests in science and the Chinese language, I stumbled on something really interesting regarding etymology.
Methionine
Of all the amino acids, methionine is one of only two that happen to contain a sulfur atom, although in this case, it is chemically inert. More importantly, it is the first amino acid in all newly synthesized protein sequences (at least before N-terminal excision), because it is coded for by the protein synthesis start codon, AUG.
So what a refreshingly cool surprise it was to discover that the translation for methionine in Chinese is “dàn” (蛋)! Which translates to “egg”.
Which came first? 鸡还是蛋？
Life is a big rabbit hole.