Feb 15, 2008
Watery Typo Leads to Salvation
In the realm of physical chemistry (or is it chemical physics?) there was almost theological interest in this week’s Alchemist. Having written about water glass and how low-temperature studies of aqueous phase changes are helping scientists to explain this anomalous and yet ubiquitous material it was a simple spellcheck-induced typo that drew the most interest from The Alchemist’s email newsletter readers.
Wave after wave (pardon the pun) of correspondents got in touch almost as soon as the newsletter was dispatched to point out that I, Uberpedant Taskmaster General had been hoist by my own petard. In describing water’s fascinating properties I described its ability to interact act at a fundamental level with many other materials as being related to its “powerful salvation properties”. Like I said, my petard was well and truly hoist. Of course, some would say it was a baptism of fire to describe water thus, but that would be nothing but hot air with an earthy stench. Thus having shoehorned allusions to all four classical elements into that last sentence, I stand
before
you hands
up and head
bowed, seeking solvationI stand before you hands up and head bowed, seeking solvation!
Meanwhile, back with the chemistry news. I also report in The Alchemist on a new approach to engineering goats to produce medicinal milk which has been devised in Pennsylvania. The research could be good news for people with diabetes. Then there’s the finding that a well-known anticancer compound also used as an antiparasitic drug could turn out to be an even better multitasker operating as it does as an effective antiviral against HIV.
Also this week, a multitude of awards from the National Academy of Sciences for diverse chemical discoveries. You can read the list of winners on the Chemweb site, together with links to the juicy bits on how much money they got, in other words.
Finally, in the legendary world of organic synthesis a wartime effort to synthesize quinine may have been vindicated while Canadian chemists have constructed nanoscopic gas cylinders from barium organotrisulfonate that come with temperature-controlled valves for trapping hydrogen and carbon dioxide. And, speaking of which, I have a hopefully typo-free but far more controversial item on the whole issue of carbon footprints, climate change now live on the Sciencebase blog.
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Johnx said,
February 15, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I rarely see any paper or book that is free of a typographical error. You probably read your creation three or four times and saw “solvation” in your mind. I write all day, every day, and I see what I am thinking rather than the actual text. My editors are no better than I am in this regard.
O.K. David,
Solvation granted. We knew what you meant anyway.
David Bradley said,
February 15, 2008 at 4:09 pm
JohnX, thanks for the comforting words. You’re right, there are none so blind as those that cannot see. And, of course, if thine word processor offends thee, pluck it out. It’s actually the autocorrect feature that is the pain, I write-type so quickly I don’t always notice that Word has sneakily corrected a word like that. Of course, if the word solvation were in the custom chemistry dictionary I am hosting at ChemSpy I wouldn’t have been caught out.
db
azmanam said,
February 16, 2008 at 4:38 pm
ZING!!!
Fear not, it’s already in there.
Thanks for the plug, tho :)
David Bradley said,
February 17, 2008 at 10:27 am
So it is Adam…of course I’d actually written that item before I’d installed your custom chemistry dictionary.
db
Roger Whitehead said,
February 19, 2008 at 3:30 am
“In describing water’s fascinating properties I described it’s ability to interact act a fundamental level…”
Interact act — a typo; forgivable
it’s — oh dear, oh dear.
Some pedant you are. 8-)
Roger
David Bradley said,
February 19, 2008 at 7:03 am
Hoisted again, doubly Roger
db
Russ Swan said,
February 19, 2008 at 11:27 am
David, I’m really sorry to have to do this to you - but when pedantry becomes competitive I feel I have little choice. One is hoist by one’s own petard, not hoisted.
R.
David Bradley said,
February 19, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Yep, and there was me correcting my 13y old son who had had the temerity to correct the Pirates III script for referring to the unfortunates as having been hanged by the neck. It’s so true what they say about the kind of blog posts that get the most comments though. Maybe I should’ve proofread the darned thing properly before posting it. ;-)
db
AnonyMousey said,
February 19, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Surely instead of “engineering goat’s” you meant “engineering goats”. Unless the work is the result of the efforts of a goat which engineered the project.
David Bradley said,
February 19, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Yep, another one…that’s the trouble with late-night blogging and attempting to rattle off a post without spending too much time on it.
db