MilliCrabs and petrichor
In my work as a science editor, I run across unfamiliar terminology. Sometimes it’s baffling, and sometimes it’s charming. Here are some recent exam...
In my work as a science editor, I run across unfamiliar terminology. Sometimes it’s baffling, and sometimes it’s charming. Here are some recent exam...
Somewhere in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series of novels, I ran across a reference to a city called Magnesia. For some reason, those old names t...
Sometimes a name tells us about the way people used to think about something. An initial understanding or categorization may look odd or confusing in late of la...
If you enjoy reading about history or reading old books—histories, books about science, even novels—you’ve probably encountered some of the wonderful old ...
The International Astronomical Union announced recently that public input will be considered when names are assigned to “planetary satellites, newly disco...
Sometimes it’s fun just to see what you can figure out about something by knowing the Latin or Greek roots of its name. This is also a great way to spot c...
When I think of the sciences, I first think of biology, physics, chemistry…the names of subjects you can take a high school class in. Here are some finer-...
One of the things I had to decide when I started this blog was how I was going to treat the word earth. Should I use earth or Earth? Do I need to use the word t...
The story of Scottish botanists Archibald Menzies, David Douglas, and the tree that bears both their names is a good example of the challenges of establishing e...
As I mentioned in an earlier post, common names, although rich in lore, are not always all that helpful for uniquely identifying an organism. They also don̵...