Keanu Reeves Thanks 'Scientist People' For Naming A Murderous Bacteria After Him
It seems like everyone loves Keanu Reeves. He's arguably one of the most popular actors working today, with every role receiving some amount of attention from audiences, most notably his titular role in the "John Wick" series. He's also the subject of various memes, and all around, he just seems like a really nice guy you'd want to hang out with.
It would appear Reeves also has some fans within the scientific community. The actor recently did a Reddit AMA where people could ask him anything about his career, and one fan chose to bring up how scientists discovered a compound that is so efficient at killing fungi they decided to name it after the "John Wick" actor. The author of the study, Sebastian Götze, explained, "The lipopeptides kill so efficiently that we named them after Keanu Reeves because he, too, is extremely deadly in his roles." So what does Reeves think about lending his name to chemicals that could be used as a viable antifungal?
Keanu Reeves calls it 'surreal'
There's a long, storied history of scientists naming everything from animals to fungi to parasites after celebrities. After all, anywhere between 15,000 and 18,000 new species of animals and plants are discovered every year, and it would get pretty boring if they all had Latin prefixes. Singer Shakira has a wasp species named after her, while Sir David Attenborough has over 40 species bearing his name, including a type of frog.
Now, Keanu Reeves is within that company, and he sounds pretty excited about it. When the topic of the compound comes up, Reeves responds, "They should've called it John Wick...but that's pretty cool...and surreal for me. But thanks, scientist people! Good luck, and thank you for helping us." Hopefully, the discovery does the world some good. Various fungal infections have grown resistant to regular anti-infectives, making them more difficult to treat. However, keanumycins could provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to known pesticides to better protect the food supply.
Who knows? Keanumycins could even save humanity from a "Last of Us"-style outbreak. Reeves has saved the day plenty of times in his movies, so it would only be appropriate if this compound saved us in real life.