Saturday, May 21, 2011

A nickname in biology: domino for whale shark

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We all know the game domino, consisting of tiles with their front side divided into faces that are dotted with spots to represent number val...
Thursday, May 19, 2011

A word in geography: char for a constantly changing floodplain island

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Char , a word that looks like shorthand for the word character or charcoal —and also is used that way—has a special meaning in geography an...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Acronym in materials science: NIB for neodymium-iron-boron

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In materials science and engineering, the acronym NIB stands for three chemical elements: neodymium-iron-boron . The reason for grouping th...
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

An early mammal named Liaoconodon hui

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  Liaoconodon hui is a Cretaceous eutriconodont mammal of the order Eutriconodonta, whose representatives are only known as fossils. The n...
Thursday, May 5, 2011

When potassium or sodium bicarbonate was used in baking powders: saleratus (Latin for “salt” and “aerated”)

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The word saleratus has its roots in New Latin: sal aeratus , meaning aerated salt [1]. Saleratus was the name for potassium bicarbonate (...
Thursday, April 28, 2011

Synonyms in mathematics and string theory: originally called octaves, now known as octonions or Cayley numbers

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Octonions build an eight-dimensional number system— the largest of the four sets of numbers of normed devision algebra [1,2]. Baez and Huer...
Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Indonesian mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus), named for its diverse mimicry displays

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The Indonesian mimic octopus ( Thaumoctopus mimicus , Octopodidae family) is named for its ability to mimic various marine species includin...