Premature Speculation

I just came across this line in a paper:

While it may be premaure to speculate about applications of _______ given its novelty...

This sounds like academic code for "we don't have a clue what use it is, but we're going to publish it anyways." No?

Contrary Children

E sent me this funny editorial from Analytical Chemistry comparing authors to "contrary children":

Murray, R. "Skillful writing of an awful research paper." Anal. Chem. 2011, 83(3), 633.

As usual, imaginary readers, let me know if you'd like the paper but don't have access.

Peer Review

A colleague from my department came across this letter yesterday. Seeing as I've been frustrated by the publishing process (among other things!) lately, and I know I'm not alone, I thought I'd share.

Journal of Systems and Software, 54 (2000), 1.

My favorite line:

"Still, from this batch of reviewers, C was clearly the most hostile, and we request that you not ask him to review this revision. Indeed, we have mailed letter bombs to four or five people we suspected of being reviewer C, so if you send the manuscript back to them, the review process could be unduly delayed."

If you want to read the whole letter (it's only a page) and don't have access, let me know!

Eclipse

Here's my best shot from the lunar eclipse the other night:


For no telephoto lens or tripod, not too shabby. Even without those it was a good chance to practice - see what I could get with different shutter speeds and ISOs. I tried to get more shots once the eclipse was closer to totality, but the reduced light meant I needed a longer exposure, especially to capture the red hue...and well...since I'm really awful at standing still, this is about the best I could get:


Unfortunately at the darkest point of the eclipse we had pretty heavy cloud cover (for Tucson), and it was late enough that I wasn't going to stand around hoping for a clearing.

Aside from more clouds than I would have liked, the weather was great. It was warmer than usual - even in the middle of the night in my pjs and a hoodie I wasn't cold. Based on the amount of chatter I could hear, I think almost half my neighborhood was out to watch. Shortly after the eclipse started I walked around the corner to Sky Bar (in clothes, not my pjs), thinking maybe they'd be broadcasting a telescope feed. Amusingly, but not really surprisingly, it was packed, so I bailed on that idea since I wasn't really feeling like noise or a crowd by myself at 1 am on a Tuesday morning.

I think the most interesting thing I learned about lunar eclipses, thanks to Wikipedia and miscellaneous other stuff on the internet is why the moon looks like it does during an eclipse. It made perfect sense that you can still see the moon during an eclipse because due to refraction of light by the earth's atmosphere. Apparently if we didn't have an atmosphere no light would reach the moon, but if we didn't have an atmosphere we'd have bigger problems than not seeing the moon during an eclipse. The moon looks reddish during eclipses for the same reason that sunsets appear reddish - the longer red wavelengths are more likely to pass through the atmosphere than the shorter blue wavelengths which are more easily scattered. Apparently, the more particles are in the air - say from a volcanic eruption or weather systems (that are conveniently located around the edge of the day/night border?) the more wavelengths will be absorbed and the redder the moon will appear.

P.S. I love campus when the undergrads are all gone. It's so quiet and peaceful.
P.P.S. Why does my motivation always seem to leave for vacation before I do??
P.P.P.S. If anybody's ever wondering what to get me, say for Christmas, I think these are super: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e684/

Angel Farts

A friend of mine from college is currently teaching high school chemistry. Yesterday marked the first time he had a student cry. Now he's a super, super nice guy, but I'm honestly surprised he'd never had a student cry before. I think most of my classmates here have had students cry. I'm pretty sure that my 99%-chance-of-failing-but-must-get-an-A-for-med-school freshman cried on me my junior year. But whatever, he's one of the nicest guys and best teachers I know. And certainly by the end of the semester his students should know that. Anyways, he's telling me how he'll make you work for your grade and that students (and people in general) need a dramatically better understanding of basic science. His summary of the situation:

I can't handle anymore "CO2 emissions are clearly not a problem because CO2 is made from angel farts which is why we have double-rainbows after the rainstorm" kind of science logic.

Amen.

The Cat's Meow

Actually the cat's lap. In assembling a literature presentation for yesterday's group meeting, I came across pretty much the greatest paper I've ever seen in Science: "How Cats Lap: Water Uptake by Felis catus." I have no idea how this got into Science, but it's brilliant (in a completely hilarious way).

The reference:
Reis, P.M., Jung, S., Aristoff, J.M., Stocker, R.; Science, 330, 1231-1234, 2010.

Did you know that there's a scientific definition for licking and lapping? And that they're not the same thing? And that the frequency of lapping can be predicted based on the mass of the cat?? Fascinating stuff I tell you.

You need to read this. If you don't have access and want to read it, let me know.