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Naming things is a hard problem for computer programmers, but not for physicists. For them it's all fun!
by tomjakubowski 8y ago
Naming things is a hard problem for computer programmers, but not for physicists. For them it's all fun!
- greglindahl 8y agoIt's not all fun for astrophysicists: the ApJ editors are pretty strict with trying to keep cute names out of the literature. One of my profs at grad school went through quite a bit of effort to get WIMPs as a name, publishing several posters and doing conference talks before submitting to ApJ for the first time.
- DiabloD3 8y agoWIMPs vs MACHOs is fucking hilarious. Although, sadly, I think both have been exhausted as options for the dark matter search. Then again, there has been like 140 dark matter/energy papers this year, and I haven't read them all.