Keanu Reeves has responded to news that a microbe-killing molecule has been named in his honour.
Last month, the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology created a new molecule that “kills so efficiently that we named it after Keanu Reeves because he, too, is extremely deadly in his roles”.
Calling it “keanumycin”, scientists showed that it worked “effectively” against plant pest Botrytis cinerea which triggers gray mold rot and causes immense harvest losses every year.
In an “Ask Me Anything” thread on Reddit this week, theJohn Wick actor said: “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.”
Keanumycins molecules, the study said, can be an “environmentally friendly alternative” to chemical pesticides and may also offer an alternative in the fight against drug-resistant fungi.
“Many human-pathogenic fungi are now resistant to antimycotics (antifungal) – partly because they are used in large quantities in agricultural fields,” study co-author Sebastian Götze said in a statement.
Reeves isn’t the first celebrity to have an organism named after him.
In 2009, a diving beetle was named after Steven Colbert because the actor “asked the science community to name something cooler than a spider to honour him”.
“His top choices were a giant ant or a laser lion. While those would be cool species to discover, our research involves beetles, and they are ‘way cooler’ than a spider any day.”
Kate Winslet also has a beetle named after her.
Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Lady Gaga, Jon Stewart and Shakira have wasps named after them.
