this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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I'm not doubting it was used before the meme, I'm just doubting the ubiquity of it prior to the meme. I believe it is a bit of a Mandela effect type of thing. People remember the general purpose of mitochondria and remember their science teachers saying things similar to the effect of "powerhouse of the cell" even if they didn't actually say that. Sort of like how "beam me up, Scotty" was specifically never used in Star Trek but just about every other variant of the phrase was.
I'm not gonna go looking for scans or anything, but KnowYourMeme lists the popularity of this one as starting between 2013 and 2015, and I definitely remember seeing this phrase in a textbook around 2010 or 2011. So honestly, I might blame Pearson or McGraw Hill.