A library is a library is a …

A library is a place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending [1]. You may want to add binders, photographs, drawings, stamps and miscellaneous other items embodying informative, memorable or related value. Such a library can be institutional or private or, as J. R. Moeringer illustrates, of yet another kind—at least in Las Vegas [2]. He saw a billboard for that particular library along the highway. Which library is advertising itself on a billboard? It turned out, this Sin City library was/is a strip club, with dancers dressed like wanton priestesses of the Dewey Decimal System. Good luck, bookworm!

Think twice the next time when you are telling somebody that you are off to the library!

References
[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/library.
[2] J. R. Moehringer: Winner Take All. Smithsonian October 2010, Volume 41, Number 6, pp. 14-20. Smithsonian.com: Las Vegas: An American Paradox.

Acronym in materials science: TSF for thin solid film(s)

In chemistry and material sciences a film is a layer that can be in a liquid, liquid-crystalline, or solid state. Solid films are classified in different ways depending on their chemical composition, physical properties and their role within a device architecture. From an engineering viewpoint, the four chief classes are metals, semiconductors, polymers and ceramics (for example, see page 1 in [1]). Film thinness [2] describes the dimension (or average distance) between the two film interfaces. It is typically in the lower micrometer or in the nanometer range, when the adjective thin is applied. Various optical techniques are available to measure and characterize thin films (Table 10-2 on page 564 in [1]). Thin-film technology is rapidly developing, answering the growing demand for faster, smarter and recyclable nanodevices.
TSF is a commonly used acronym for thin solid films. There also is an international journal published under the same name [3], which often is referred to by using this acronym. Encoding of TSF composition and architecture is achieved with CurlySMILES [4].

Keywords: materials science, surface science, applied physics, nanotechnology

References
[1] Milton Ohring: Materials Science of Thin Films. Second Edition. Academic Press, San Diego, 2002.
[2] Many authors prefer the term film thickness instead, even for very thin films.
[3] Thin Solid Films. International Journal of the Science and Technology of Condensed Matter Films.
[4] Axel Drefahl: CurlySMILES encoding of thin solid films.

Twitterversiality

At Twitter people broadcast all kinds of subjects and have conversations about almost everything—snippetwise. Anything out there in the twitterverse such as “doing-nows”, facts, thoughts, questions, answers, remarks, etc., which often come in sentence fragments, is only 140 characters long or even shorter. Whatever you are going to microblog on Twitter has to be twitterversial: it has to fit this length requirement for the sake of compatibility with SMS messaging. If you want to say something funny, interesting and/or informative on Twitter you need to check your envisioned tweet for its Twitterversiality. By following conversations on Twitter, you'll realize that most humans are natural twitterers, who create their own short expressions, formulas and codes, mostly without Universality, often with Controversiality, but always with Twitterversiality.

More on the noun “twitterverse”
[1] Twitterverse at wordnik: www.wordnik.com/words/twitterverse.
[2] New Words: Twitterverse. www.english-for-students.com/Twitterverse.html.

Native American: “Tallac” meaning “Great Mountain”

The Sierra Nevada has a respectable number of tall mountains and many are higher then Mount Tallac, located between the southwest side of Lake Tahoe and the Crystal Range. According to Mike White, “Tallac is a Native American word meaning Great Mountain, a particular appropriate moniker for this stately peak.”
The word Tallac also appears in the designation of nearby geographical features and locations such as Tallac Creek and Tallac Historic Site. And, yes, there is a Mt. Tallac Brewing Company in South Lake Tahoe.

Reference and further reading
“Mt. Tallac” on pages 166 and 167 in Mike White's hiking guide Afoot & Afield • Reno-Tahoe • A comprehensive hiking guide. Wilderness Press, Berkeley, California, 2nd printing November 2008.

Floating Island Lake near South Lake Tahoe named after floating grassy mats

Floating Island Lake is a forest-rimmed lake west of South Lake Tahoe. This small lake is located between Mount Tallac and Fallen Leaf Lake. Looking westward across the lake from the Floating Island Lake Trail that passes the lake at its eastern shoreline, grassy patches can sometimes be seen at the western shore. Such patches may slough off from the lakeshore and then float around as grassy mats on the surface of the usually quiet lake. The lake was named after such a floating mat, as Mike White explains:

Five-acre Floating Island Lake was named in the late 1800s for a 20-foot diameter, grass- and shrub-covered natural island that at one time sported a thriving conifer. Since that time, several more grassy mats have sloughed off from the lakeshore and floated about the lake […]

Reference and further reading
“Floating Island & Cathedral Lakes” on pages 165 and 166 in Mike White's hiking guide Afoot & Afield • Reno-Tahoe • A comprehensive hiking guide. Wilderness Press, Berkeley, California, 2nd printing November 2008.

Acronym in coordination chemistry: MOF for metal-organic framework

In chemistry and materials science the acronym MOF is known to stand for the term metal-organic framework [1]. A MOF is a nanostructure consisting of metal atoms or ions, or clusters thereof, and ligands that extend ‘infinitely’ into one, two, or three dimensions by metal-ligand bonding. MOFs are also called coordination polymers.

Depending on the functional design of the molecular structure of the bridging organic ligand(s), a mind-boggling diversity of nanostructural—or let's say suprastructural—topologies are possible. Such framework-structure-based topologies include well-known regular tessellation-type networks as well as complex non-regular ones, not to forget interpenetrating networks. MOF applications range from ion exchange, molecule storage, gas separation, and chemical sensing to catalysis. If the right starting components are chosen, such as food-grade γ-cyclodextrin, potassium cations and ethanol solvent, edible MOFs can be produced via self-assembly [2]. Bon Appétit!

Keywords: complex chemistry, food chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, topology, nanostructure design, oligosacharides, biorenewability

References and further reading
[1] Chapter 16 “Crystal engineering: Metal-Organic Framework (MOFs)” in the book by Joan Ribas Gispert with the title Coordination Chemistry. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2008.
[2] Mitch Jacobi: Making Edible Nanostructures. Chemical & Engineering News August 30, 2010, 88 (35), page. 6 and on the Web at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/88/i35/8835notw4.html.

Acronym in chemistry: MIP for molecularly imprinted polymer

The term molecularly imprinted polymer in chemistry and materials science is commonly abbreviated as MIP [1]. A typical MIP is a polymer network built from self-assembled functional monomers and cross-linking monomers in such a manner that cavities inside the network—the imprints—function as recognition or binding sites for template molecules .
Such MIP-template systems are also known as guest-host complexes, inspired by the lock-and-key metaphor, which Emil Fischer presented in 1894 to describe the way a substrate (template, with the above terminology) interacts with an enzyme [2]. Synthesized MIPs can mimic enzymes. They can be designed in analogy to those seen in antibody-antigen systems [3]. Beyond the usage as antibody and receptor mimics, MIPS have found applications in chromatography, separation technology and design of chemical sensors as well as biosensors.

References and further reading
[1] Mingdi Yan and Olof Ramström(Editors): Molecularly Imprinted Materials • Science and Technology. Marcel Dekker, New York, 2005.
[2] Olof Ramström and Mingdi Yan: Molecular Imprinting—An Introduction. Chapter 1 in [1].
[3] Ecevit Yilmaz, Ronald H. Schmidt and Klaus Mosbach: The Noncovalent Approach. Chapter 3 in [1].