杏吧原创

Non-sciency names

WE recently reported Steve Hibbert鈥檚 proposition that 鈥減rion鈥� is a sciency name while 鈥渟pongler鈥� is not (27 November). Did readers know of any other non-sciency names that have squinked into the lexicon, we wondered.

A gratifying large number did, and here are some of the examples that were sent in. Many come from the computer industry, including nybble (half a byte), Kermit transfer protocol, dongle, snort, Twain (鈥渢hing without an interesting name鈥�), incredible woz machine (part of an Apple Mac) and flops.

From biology we have the hunchback gene and the sonic hedgehog, desert hedgehog, tiggy-winkle hedgehog and Indian hedgehog genes.

Chemistry brings us buckminsterfullerene, cummingtonite, moronic acid, unununium, curious chloride and a host of other names listed on .

And then from maths we have penguin diagram, googol (10¹⁰⁰), strange attractor, and emirp, emirpimes and iccanobif (Jonathan Vos Post, the inventor of emirpimes, explains that you can see where these come from by reversing the letters).

Finally, physics offers the barn (鈥渢he effective cross-sectional area of a target nucleus鈥�, Daniel Large tells us), beam dumps and wigglers (used routinely at the Daresbury Synchrotron light source in the UK, says Jonathan Knowles), and last but not least, quarks and gluons and the strangeness and charm that quarks are reputed to possess.

Thanks to all who sent in these examples. But before we leave this topic, a message from Alec Cawley to anyone with the opportunity of minting new scientific names. He says there are said to be four words in the English language for which there are no rhymes: silver, purple, orange and month.

If your newly coined word provides such a rhyme, not only will you be doing poets a favour, but also your coinage is more likely to be celebrated in verse 鈥� albeit (probably) doggerel.

ET on the internet

ASTRONOMERS looking for extraterrestrial intelligence have yet to find any solid evidence in the radio signals and light they collect from outer space, so they鈥檝e turned to a different arena 鈥� the internet.

A group of 90 scientists, artists and futurists called 鈥淚nvitation to ETI鈥� have created a website at that invites any extraterrestrials who log on to establish a dialogue with humanity.

The organisers have had the site up for a while, but no aliens have stopped by to say hello yet. Now they鈥檝e overhauled the site to meet standards for access by disabled users 鈥� presumably to make it accessible to extraterrestrial web surfers with 鈥渄isabilities鈥� like having eyes that cannot see in the visible spectrum.

鈥淲hat greater accessibility challenge is there than making the Invitation to ETI accessible to our cosmic companions, creatures with whom we may have nothing biological in common?鈥� asks Paul Shuch, a group member who redesigned the site.

Feedback doesn鈥檛 know what browsers aliens prefer, but the good news is that the site works with all the browsers we had at hand. The bad news is that it is written entirely in English, so the group鈥檚 next challenge is inventing a universal translator that does the job of Douglas Adams鈥檚 Babelfish. However, let鈥檚 not invite the Vogons.

elgooG

MORE fun with search engines. Type 鈥渆lgooG鈥� into Google and follow the first link. Then, for example, enter 鈥渢sitneicS weN鈥� into the form you get. The result will look deeply puzzling. Unlike so-called 鈥渕irror sites鈥� that merely reflect content, this is an actual mirror image of the famous search engine.

But why? 鈥淔or fun,鈥� the elgooG site says. Readers who program computers may understand what kind of 鈥渇un鈥� from this: elgooG is 鈥渁 4000-line custom CGI script written in Perl鈥�. Those who have better things to do should probably not enquire 鈥渨hat is Perl?鈥�

Quite by accident, elgooG has developed a serious side. It has a lot of users in China, where the government restricts access to many websites 鈥� particularly Google, because it gives access to copies of sites that it indexes, bypassing for example the Chinese block on sites such as news.bbc.co.uk. Back in September 2002, New 杏吧原创鈥榮 online news service, among others, noted that elgooG gave full access to Google for users in China who can type the Roman alphabet backwards. The machinery apparently wasn鈥檛 recognising that 鈥渟weN CBB鈥� is a banned broadcaster. Perhaps the censors dismissed the site as a joke.

Ben Edelman, who pioneered automated checking of China鈥檚 internet restrictions and is now doing a PhD in economics at Harvard, checked for Feedback last month: elgooG is still functioning for computer users in China.

9 days a week

FINALLY, some people find it hard to keep track of the days rolling by. A sign at a Blockbuster video rental store in central Cambridge, Massachusetts, reads: 鈥淭wo day rentals 鈥� due on the 3rd day. One week rentals 鈥� due on the 9th day鈥�.

From the department of misplaced adjectives: Jane Ginnett鈥檚 local garage has a sign outside advertising its offer of a 鈥淕round Cup of Real Coffee鈥�