HERE IS the name of a chemical found in nature:
amidophosphoribosyltransferase. And here is another: phosphoribulosyl
forminoaminoimidazolcarboxamidoribotide.
Do you find them difficult to read? Feedback certainly does. So hats off to
Dave Yost, who initiated last year鈥檚 鈥渨eb dot鈥� campaign, which argued that the
letters that precede Web addresses (http://www) should be pronounced as
the much-easier-to-say 鈥渨eb dot鈥�
(see Letters, 25 October 1997, p 58).
Now Yost has come up with another idea. He says that chemists should do what
software engineers have done for years鈥攊ntroduce internal capital letters
into long names to aid readability.
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So the two examples above would read: AmidoPhosphoRibosylTransferase and
PhosphoRibulosyl ForminoAminoImidazolCarboxAmidoRibotide.
Feedback agrees wholeheartedly that if they are written like that, they are
much easier both to read and remember.
As Yost says, this is not just of academic importance. With more and more lay
people being subjected to long biochemical names in health articles and labels
on bottles of supplements and drugs, the issue affects us all.
Are you listening, chemists and copywriters? Put those capitals in!
SPARE a thought for Cody Johnston of Bozeman, Montana. When his parents
opened the High Country Independent Press one morning last month, they
read that he had been convicted of 鈥渄eviatesexual conduct鈥�.
He protested that it wasn鈥檛 true, but his parents, his wife and his sister
all decided he was in denial and urged him to seek treatment.
In fact, Johnston had only been fined for overloading his lorry, but a
computer glitch at the county court had turned this into a conviction for a sex
charge which included bestiality. It was this charge that appeared on the list
the court passed on to the newspaper.
鈥淚鈥檝e heard every sheep joke you can imagine,鈥� said Johnston mournfully.
When they discovered the error, the Independent Press promptly ran a
correction. Even so, Johnson is suing both the paper and the county court for
not checking the list that led to the error. Feedback is hardly surprised.
HERE鈥橲 a breathtaking story. Earlier this month, Reuters put out a report of
a new health test aimed at measuring people鈥檚 lung diffusing capacity. Based on
a paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the report described
the technique as follows: 鈥淭o calculate the level of pulmonary diffusing
capacity, researchers ask the subject to inhale air containing a known
concentration of carbon monoxide, hold their breath for 10 minutes, and then
别虫丑补濒别.鈥�
Presumably, the only people who pass this test are pearl fishers.
THE BBC is planning to launch a digital subscription TV service before the
end of this year. Feedback hopes it is more successful than the last try in
1992.
A department called BBC Select was formed to transmit scrambled programmes
during the night hours. Viewers needed a decoder, called a Selector, which cost
拢275. Then they had to pay a subscription. After a flurry of publicity,
there was silence. The BBC never owned up that Select had been a disastrous
flop.
Now an advert in a hobbyists鈥� catalogue tells the sorry truth. Brand new
Selectors sell as electronics scrap for just 拢9.95.
Feedback was intrigued by several other offers in the catalogue. For
拢12 anyone can buy plans to build the system used by police and security
services to eavesdrop on conversations inside a room by bouncing a laser beam
off the window. For 拢6 you get the plans for an electric phaser pistol, as
used by US police to stun criminals.
A circuit diagram for a 鈥減ulsed TV joker鈥� costs 拢8. This hand-held
device completely disrupts TV and radio reception. 鈥淒iscretion advised鈥� says the
catalogue鈥攚hich, obviously, we will not name.
Feedback鈥檚 favourite is a snip at 拢9.95. A pack of 50 hemp seeds comes
with a 60-page growing guide, and the warning that 鈥渁 Home Office licence is
required for growing in the UK鈥�.
WHEN ET tried to phone home, he didn鈥檛 have to ask the operator to connect
him. NASA, however, has other ideas. It is asking global satellite providers
such as Iridium whether they would be interested in running part of NASA鈥檚
communication network through their cellphone systems.
At the moment NASA communicates with the space shuttle through its own
satellite network. But this will have to be either replaced or upgraded as
higher demands are put on the network with the launch of the International Space
Station. It is unknown what 鈥渇riends and family鈥� numbers NASA is hoping to use
for a discount, or what long-distance calls to space would cost.
HEIDI SWANSON bought a Samsung VCR and tried to set the default volume
control to get the setting she required every time she viewed a videotape. On
the remote control, she found a button with a symbol which looked like a
loudspeaker and which she assumed would allow her to do this.
She looked up the Spanish instructions and found this entry for that button:
鈥淓ven if this button exists, it has no function.鈥�
MEANWHILE, the Australian hiking magazine Wild recently ran an
advertisement for Snowgum brand thermal underwear. Among several claims for the
undies is the following: 鈥淪nowgum thermals are made from Polypropylene, a fabric
consisting exclusively of carbon and hydrogen鈥� elements found
苍补迟耻谤补濒濒测.鈥�
Ah, so that鈥檚 alright then.