ubiquitous

The root of ubiquitous lies in a sixteenth-century theological dispute. Some Lutheran theologians, notably Johannes Brenz, argued that the risen body of Christ shared in God's omnipresence and could therefore be truly present in the bread and wine of every Communion service at once. Opponents called this teaching ubiquitarianism, from the Latin ubique, “everywhere,” and its supporters Ubiquitarians. Reformed theologians in the tradition of John Calvin rejected the idea. The noun ubiquity thus spread through religious writing long before the adjective ubiquitous became common in the nineteenth century.

Once free of theology, the adjective moved into general writing, where it described anything that seemed to be present everywhere at once. Today it is applied to coffee chains, plastic bags, security cameras, and pop songs alike. Usage guides sometimes warn that the word is overworked in journalism and business writing, especially where a plainer phrase such as “very common” or “found everywhere” would serve as well. Used precisely, it still carries a useful sense of total saturation that common does not.

In computing, the word gained a technical meaning through Mark Weiser, a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, who introduced the term ubiquitous computing around 1988. In a 1991 Scientific American article, “The Computer for the 21st Century,” he predicted that computers would fade into the background of everyday life, built into walls, furniture, and handheld devices rather than sitting on desks. Smartphones, smart speakers, and the networked sensors of the Internet of Things have since realized much of that vision.

Biology borrowed the word for one of its most important molecules. Ubiquitin, a small protein first identified in 1975, was named for being found in nearly all cells with a nucleus, from yeast to human beings. Cells attach chains of ubiquitin to proteins that are damaged or no longer needed, marking them for destruction. The protein is so well conserved that the human and yeast versions differ in only three of their 76 amino acids. Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, and Irwin Rose received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering this system of protein disposal.

Environmental scientists use ubiquitous for pollution that no place escapes. Microplastics, fragments of plastic smaller than five millimeters, have been detected in Arctic sea ice, deep-ocean sediments, bottled and tap water, and human blood. Researchers studying PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals used in nonstick and waterproof coatings, describe them as ubiquitous because they break down so slowly that they accumulate in soil, water, and living tissue around the world.