Jacqueline & the Algonauts
I had an agitated night while we transferred in London! The day before, during our discussion, we talked about algae forming huge underwater forests or creating the illusion of blood stains on the snow. Seems that all of this provided me a lot of material for building dreams!
In one of the episodes of my reverie, I found myself boarding on Argo, in search of the Golden Fleece1. I was explaining then to Jason2 that there was a misunderstanding, that the whole crew was really looking very charming and friendly but that the heroes I was looking for were not the Argonauts3 but the Algonauts, explorers of the potential of algae. Jason was nodding and repeating in Greek “phykos, phykos”. Then he was suddenly leaving, telling me he was about to send an email to the King Pelias for checking if there was a change in the rules of the challenge. I was then taking advantage of stranding on corals to waking up a little bit tired.
That morning, I discovered that the science of algae is called phycology, from the Greek phykos which means macroalgae but which refers nowadays to the study of algae in general. The word algology was also employed in the past but its use has gradually been abandoned: the Greek prefix algos means pain and it has led to the development of a lexical field which refer to that in many languages. The term algology is employed for the science which studies pain.
If I understand correctly, I should rename the Algonauts’ Road into the Phyconauts’ Road? Well … no. I keep the reference to Jason and the Argonauts: I will have a tender thought in memory of our meeting each time I will talk about the project!