Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Meaningless” | Hacker News Reader

Biohazard: Iconic Symbol Designed to Be “Memorable but Meaningless”

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57 pointsmisnamed26 comments

That's neat, the symbol had no agreeable associations back then, but now it's become this nefarious looking thing, at least for me, due to things like 28 days later: http://imgur.com/Ym1PqPE

I can't tell if the symbol itself should be nefarious or not, due to all the cultural baggage. From psychology research, we know that shapes are commonly associated with sounds within a culture [1], but it's a very flower icon in an abstract sense.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/talking-apes/201505/do-...

I can't tell if it's just cultural association, but the biohazard symbol looks viscerally evil to me. It suggests the barbs of a stinging insect or the mouth parts of a parasitic worm. I feel an instinctive aversion to it, akin to disgust or horror.

The ionising radiation symbol doesn't have anything like the same gut impact; aside from the yellow and black colour scheme, it looks quite neutral and unthreatening.

The ionising radiation symbol doesn't have anything like the same gut impact; aside from the yellow and black colour scheme, it looks quite neutral and unthreatening.

They seem to have fixed that nicely:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Lo...

That's the symbol for "The extractor fan in this room is haunted"

I thought it meant "turn up the speakers and head over to the mosh pit or die."

I agree with that, but struggle to articulate why it looks evil. Does it look like decay? Like a weapon? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As mentioned, it looks vaguely like some kind of horrible insect or a spider or something. Probably close enough to itch at your subconscious.

I agree. Trychtophobia (spelling) is definitely a real thing, so I don't think it's out of question. It seems that (in some people at least) certain patterns or images can have very, uh, "deterring" properties, I guess.

The biohazard symbol looks flat out dangerous to me. While the radiation trifoil scares me because I've learned what it means, the biohazard symbol is something more instinctual to me. It says "someone who knows more than you do wanted to freak you out by putting this here, so stay away!"

I wonder if it's because it looks like three sets of pincers. I feel like the effect would be muted if the outer circles were consistent width and didn't end in points.

Growing up, I had superimposed the belief that the central circle was supposed to represent an original infected cell, and then, I thought the sharp hooks were supposed to be forming three new infected cells violently emerging from the original infected host, destroying the host in the process.

The imagery seemed to make sense to me, since viruses load up in a cell, and force the cell to churn out copies until it explodes.

I figured the knifey looking sharp hooks were just stylization, to communicate danger and get the point across. (see what I did there?)

Apparently even babies have an innate fear of spiders (and snakes)(according to at least one study).

http://www.livescience.com/2348-fear-snakes.html

But rotate it 60 degrees, and it looks like a happy monkey face. At least to me.

While you might argue that "nefarious" is an overly serious descriptor, I don't think it's wholly inappropriate to think of a symbol intended as a warning as such.

Yes, as the article points out, please do not use biohazard, radiation, or high voltage warning symbols on decorative objects.

And if you personally own products which have decorative biohazard or radiation symbols on them, make sure you NEVER, EVER bring them into a context where they might be taken literally. (Ideally, don't bring them out into public spaces at all.) In the wrong situation, leaving (say) your "biohazard" lunchbox sitting on a desk could lead to a panicked security lockdown.

I work at a medical device company, and a coworker of mine uses this lunchbox - http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e72e/

The first time I saw it in the company fridge I completely freaked.

It could totally be BSL2+ if they bled on it accidentally

When my father was in highschool he drew a radiation symbol on the envelope to a letter he sent to a friend, and a regional postmaster came to his parent's house and chewed him out in person for it.

Honestly I think the biohazard tie mentioned in the article isn't so bad, since presumably it's warn by someone in the field who will be surrounded by others of the same field, so I don't think anyone will be tricked into thinking the necktie itself is a biohazard. I actually think the biohazard necktie is kind of funny, in certain circumstances (maybe not if worn by my doctor, but instead by someone giving a keynote speech about biohazardous material)

The lunchboxes, water bottles, and helmets on the other hand... that's just absurd.

A pity Apple didn't do this, with pushing their 'thunderbolt' icon, which is basically the same as 'high voltage'. Bad mojo.

Find this and other symbols in Hornung's Handbook of Designs and Devices, first published in 1932.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_P._Hornung

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Handbook-Designs-Devices-Pictorial-A...

There's a new style of hunting arrowhead that is reminiscent of this symbol (and called "Toxic Broadheads". Apparently it's very effective against large game, because it tears out a few ribbons of flesh, and it's much harder for the wound to seal back up.

http://www.bowhunting.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/front-3...

It's not completely meaningless. Apart from the association with the radiation symbol due to the symmetry, it looks strikingly unfriendly, with sharp tentacles reaching out to grab you like a biohazard well might.

How did the swastika one even leave the designer's sketch pad?

It's an ancient symbol representing the sun. It predates brown-shirted thugs by thousands of years. I've seen old printings of Kipling's works from the 1920s that have it stamped on the bindings, which is a bit jarring. But as I've said, it's a great deal older than that.

Prior to the 1930s, it was actually fairly common. It even wound up as the logo for an Vancouver-area women's hockey team[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernie_Swastikas

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