In 2012, biology researchers from Duke’s Pryer & Windham Labs made headlines when they discovered a new genus of ferns—and named it after Lady Gaga. The ferns’ gametophytes resemble a costume Lady Gaga wore to the 2010 Grammy Awards, and their DNA sequences also spell out G-A-G-A. Professor Kathleen Pryer, the leader of the study and the director of the Duke Herbarium, explained that "[w]e wanted to name this genus for Lady Gaga because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression.”