When I first heard "the plural of #anecdote is not #data," I thought it was very clever, and repeated it endlessly. So did, and do, a bunch of other people.

The original form of that saying was "the plural of anecdote is data." It was meant to urge researchers not to dismiss rare or unexpected results as #outliers. Both "the plural of anecdote is data" and "the plural of anecdote is not data" can be true, depending on context.

Like other #science aphorisms which have entered popular culture, particularly those containing the phrase "is not," this is a constant annoyance. I know my complaints won't make them go away. But I hope I can at least get people thinking about them, rather than parroting them and feeling smug.

Just something that came up tangentially today. Now, back to sorting out the anecdotes. Cells are wordy little bastards.