HI Tim, you should know better. German is the most precise language, hence all those old German *gosh* books (for the younger readers of this board, there was a time before pdf and Nook readers) for organic chemistry etc. from the 19th century and older (Beilstein, Angewandte ...). And why was that the case ? Because we love-to-connect-three-or-five-words in one describing all of the above :-)
how about "data was collected at -180˚C (93.15K)", fairly precise the reader can think if it's frozen or vitrified and the writer couldn't care less. flash-annealing - any takers on that one ? Transition from hexagonal ice to vitrified glass - or just magic ? Jürgen On Nov 16, 2012, at 4:54 AM, Tim Gruene wrote: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi James, I once heard that in (European) law French is the language of choice because it were the most precise one (which I find easy to believe). Maybe we should try and convince journals to only accept articles written in French - not sure, this will improve their quality, though, comparing my level of French with my level of English ;-) Lovely discussion, Tim On 11/15/2012 09:15 PM, James Stroud wrote: On Nov 15, 2012, at 10:59 AM, Tim Gruene wrote: I have heard this discussion before and reminds me of people claiming strawberries were nuts - which botanically may be correct, but would still not make me complain about strawberries in a fruit cake I ordered at a restaurant. My Pengiun English Dictionary states (amongst other explanations) freeze: "to make extremely cold", Tim's comment strikes at the heart of the problem. I think the scientific community should decide a few points. 1. What is the approved language and dialect for science? 2. Within this dialect, what should be the authoritative dictionary? 3. Will we allow use of definitions that are not the primary definition (second, third, fourth). 4. Will we allow the use of homonyms? 5. If not, which homonyms should prevail? These are all very important questions if we completely disregard context in writing. James - -- - -- Dr Tim Gruene Institut fuer anorganische Chemie Tammannstr. 4 D-37077 Goettingen GPG Key ID = A46BEE1A -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iD8DBQFQpg1XUxlJ7aRr7hoRAl33AKCbSYXQmD2YyVug5s3i+2CYDVDzqQCfZ7Qz 4IiEP5B5NrB+D0s+r/tIa6o= =nN9O -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ...................... Jürgen Bosch Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute 615 North Wolfe Street, W8708 Baltimore, MD 21205 Office: +1-410-614-4742 Lab: +1-410-614-4894 Fax: +1-410-955-2926 http://lupo.jhsph.edu
