Ontogiston recapitulates Phlogiston

Now and then, way way over-the-top strikes me as just about exactly right. For this piece, I layered almost all of my hyperbolic obscure punning silliness into the title itself, but it still conditions the rest importantly.

"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is an old saying in the sciences - essentially, the life-cycle of an individual animal, develops through stages similar to the evolutionary development of it's entire species phylum or class.

Phlogiston is a chemical that never existed - part of a theoretical explanation long believed, which turned out to be wrong in every way. Scientists used to think Phlogiston was the thing released in combustion - the active part of fire.

And as for the rest of it, well - you really ought to expect this sort of thing from me by-now, don't you think? ;o)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯