Chonkus sounds like the name of a videogame boss.

You beat the “chonky” cyanobacteria. You think you’re safe and you’re going to use all that EXP on upgrading your armor, then suddenly you’re greeted to a gigantic health bar which takes up the entire width of the screen, with the name “CHONKUS” above it.

Boss music plays

CHONKUS

HAIL CHONKUS

one of my intern cohorts upon seeing a bunch of starch granules in an algal TEM: “are these cells kinda… fat?”

supervisor: basically yes

(makes sense as we cultured them under blazing 24/7 LED lights in rich growth media)