Chemistry Blog muses about names: (4aR,5aS,8aR,8a1S,15aS)-4a1,5,5a,7,8,8a1,15,15a-octahydro-2H-4,6-methanoindolo[3,2,1-ij]oxepino[2,3,4-de]pyrrolo[2,3-h]quinolin-14(4aH)-one. Imagine if Agatha Christie had to write that every time she had to mention the poison used in the murder, or if Hitchcock’s leading man had to vocalise it in the courtroom. Well they’d never get the book or the film down to a manageable size. It’s much easier […]
Tag: name
Anxiety—the research journal for those anxious about anxiety
The research journal named Anxiety may have been the most deliciously scary-named research journal in existence. Alas, the publishers changed the journal’s name, long ago, to the more tepid Depression and Anxiety. Here is a look at the journal’s masthead as it was in the good old days before the name change:
Most lyrically-named machine: Crypto Peerless Mixer
You’ll not find a more lyrically-named machine than the Crypto Peerless Mixer. Here’s a video of one in action. Note the laconic narration. And you’ll—probably—not find a Crypto Peerless Mixer more storied than one being disposed of by, or behalf of, the British government. Here is one such: (Thanks to @IanVisits for bringing the disposal […]
Dr. Shit Fun Chew, Undersung Scientist
Investigator Eileen Peters alterts us to the fact that Dr. Shit F. Chew—our Undersung Scientist of the Month back in December 2004 and again in February 2010—now lists her complete name on her web site. Her complete name is Dr. Shit Fun Chew. Dr. Chew now becomes our first three-time Undersung Scientist of the Month. […]
Math exercise: Predict the next big science journal
This week’s Improbable Big Mathematics Exercise is to predict when the next big wave of big science journals will be published. The current biggest wave of big science journals is exemplified by the journal Gigascience. (Warning: Their logo, displayed here, may confuse matters. It seems to imply that they are dealing not with giga science, […]
The ever-shortening name: When CQU?
A linguistics question: Predict the year when this university will shorten its name to be just three letters long. Here’s Wikipedia’s history of the name changes so far: CQUniversity started out as the Queensland Institute of Technology (Capricornia) in 1967, and after two years under the name of the University College of Central Queensland, in 1992 became […]
Zib/Zeb/Dick, unnamable diplomat
The Arab Times and other media report on a difficulty of language involving a diplomat named Akbar Zib (or, in some spellings, Akber Zeb). Mr. Zib (or Zeb) appears in the photo below, in the middle, clasping his hands over his groin. Here’s a report from the Salem News: Saudi’s Reject Pakistani Diplomat Whose Name […]