5 ms·

It makes me sad every time a mineral, chemical, or species is named after some arbitrary human (or worse) because the name is arbitrary, telling you nothing abo

by driggs 5y ago

It makes me sad every time a mineral, chemical, or species is named after some arbitrary human (or worse) because the name is arbitrary, telling you nothing about the thing itself or diagnostic differences from similar things. It’s even worse when the name sounds stupid. “Dave”?! After somebody’s nickname, who wasn’t even a “David”?! Thanks for making science even harder!

aulin 5y ago
not against giving people names to minerals per se, but at least chose a name that you can write in a phonetic language. davemaoite only sounds good if you read it in english pronounce
capableweb 5y ago
Names are just names, after a while you'll get used to it. Not sure how you can claim that Ho-Kwang (Dave) Mao was not named "Dave", you get the name you claim to have, so in my mind, Dave is indeed named Dave. I for one think it's nice that we still pay tribute to people by naming newly discovered things after them, they are immortalized that way. By the way, the mineral is named davemaoite, both Dave and Mao is from their name, not just "Dave".
- driggs 5y ago
  Names are NOT just names, unless you believe that all of science should involve rote memorization of arbitrary labels. Calcite is made of calcium. Magnetite is magnetic. Andesite's type locality is The Andes. Azurite is blue (azure). Sure, there's lots of minerals, and the damage is already done in that there's a long list of minerals honoring people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals_named_after_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals_named_after_p... But this mineral is very special (which is why you're reading an article about it). Couldn't they have thought of some name, even Latin, having to do with the fact that it's the first known mineral from the lower mantle? From the fact that it was trapped in a diamond? That it lasted one brief second? A prefix added to "perovskite" since it's simply another form of that mineral? Or at least if naming it after a person, how about the guy who discovered it given what a cool discovery story this is. Maybe Ho-Kwang "Dave" Mao deserves honor; give the guy an award. But as far as I can tell from the article, he has nothing to do with this mineral.
  - akiselev 5y ago
    > Would you also defend my naming of a mineral if I thought the guy from `Revenge of the Nerds` should be honored, and called it boogerite? Geologists have had names like fukalite, cummingtonite, taconite, fornacite, and dickite since the 19th century so I don't think they'd even notice.
    - driggs 5y ago
      (I already edited my response since what was intended as a joke sounded unintentionally confrontational.) The fact that there are already bad names doesn't justify creating more bad names. If nothing else, I suppose the terrible names are memorable.
      - akiselev 5y ago
        (I took it to be more jovial than confrontational fwiw) Bad names are all we've got left. There are over four thousand named minerals. How many ways can you say the words "blue" or "magnetic" in an Earthly language before you run out of words like azurite or bluite and start using ridiculous (and confusing) names like azurelite and bluilite? I hope you've got several thousand in mind (Anglicized for academia no less) because color and magnetism are two of the main ways minerals are identified. Just a google image search for the word "blue mineral" returns dozens of results in varying shades of blue, let alone turquoise or "blue-green".
        driggs 5y ago
        The name serves as a mnemonic, not a diagnostic criteria! My brain is overloaded with emacs keybindings, I can’t memorize any more arbitrary lists! What can you tell me about Fe₃O₄? _blank stare_ What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha!
        akiselev 5y ago
        > What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha! What about Fe₃Si (suessite)? Fe²⁺Fe³⁺₂S₄ (greigite)? They too are magnetic. I don't think magnetite is even the only magnetic mineral with Fe₃O₄ and if you want to be precise it should be ferromagnetite, because every thing from Fe₂O₃ (hematite) to FeTiO₃ (ilmenite) are weakly magnetic.
JetAlone 5y ago
I don't mind the naming scheme but I think it's just kind of hard to say DaveMaoite. Reversing to Maodaveite would have been better IMO.
Igelau 5y ago
At first I thought it was dah-VEM-ā-oh-ite. Call them Dave Diamonds. Or Diamond Daves. Like David Lee Roth.

by driggs 5y ago

aulin 5y ago

not against giving people names to minerals per se, but at least chose a name that you can write in a phonetic language. davemaoite only sounds good if you read it in english pronounce

capableweb 5y ago

Names are just names, after a while you'll get used to it. Not sure how you can claim that Ho-Kwang (Dave) Mao was not named "Dave", you get the name you claim to have, so in my mind, Dave is indeed named Dave. I for one think it's nice that we still pay tribute to people by naming newly discovered things after them, they are immortalized that way. By the way, the mineral is named davemaoite, both Dave and Mao is from their name, not just "Dave".

driggs 5y ago
Names are NOT just names, unless you believe that all of science should involve rote memorization of arbitrary labels. Calcite is made of calcium. Magnetite is magnetic. Andesite's type locality is The Andes. Azurite is blue (azure). Sure, there's lots of minerals, and the damage is already done in that there's a long list of minerals honoring people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals_named_after_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals_named_after_p... But this mineral is very special (which is why you're reading an article about it). Couldn't they have thought of some name, even Latin, having to do with the fact that it's the first known mineral from the lower mantle? From the fact that it was trapped in a diamond? That it lasted one brief second? A prefix added to "perovskite" since it's simply another form of that mineral? Or at least if naming it after a person, how about the guy who discovered it given what a cool discovery story this is. Maybe Ho-Kwang "Dave" Mao deserves honor; give the guy an award. But as far as I can tell from the article, he has nothing to do with this mineral.
- akiselev 5y ago
  > Would you also defend my naming of a mineral if I thought the guy from `Revenge of the Nerds` should be honored, and called it boogerite? Geologists have had names like fukalite, cummingtonite, taconite, fornacite, and dickite since the 19th century so I don't think they'd even notice.
  - driggs 5y ago
    (I already edited my response since what was intended as a joke sounded unintentionally confrontational.) The fact that there are already bad names doesn't justify creating more bad names. If nothing else, I suppose the terrible names are memorable.
    - akiselev 5y ago
      (I took it to be more jovial than confrontational fwiw) Bad names are all we've got left. There are over four thousand named minerals. How many ways can you say the words "blue" or "magnetic" in an Earthly language before you run out of words like azurite or bluite and start using ridiculous (and confusing) names like azurelite and bluilite? I hope you've got several thousand in mind (Anglicized for academia no less) because color and magnetism are two of the main ways minerals are identified. Just a google image search for the word "blue mineral" returns dozens of results in varying shades of blue, let alone turquoise or "blue-green".
      - driggs 5y ago
        The name serves as a mnemonic, not a diagnostic criteria! My brain is overloaded with emacs keybindings, I can’t memorize any more arbitrary lists! What can you tell me about Fe₃O₄? _blank stare_ What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha!
        akiselev 5y ago
        > What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha! What about Fe₃Si (suessite)? Fe²⁺Fe³⁺₂S₄ (greigite)? They too are magnetic. I don't think magnetite is even the only magnetic mineral with Fe₃O₄ and if you want to be precise it should be ferromagnetite, because every thing from Fe₂O₃ (hematite) to FeTiO₃ (ilmenite) are weakly magnetic.

JetAlone 5y ago

I don't mind the naming scheme but I think it's just kind of hard to say DaveMaoite. Reversing to Maodaveite would have been better IMO.

Igelau 5y ago

At first I thought it was dah-VEM-ā-oh-ite. Call them Dave Diamonds. Or Diamond Daves. Like David Lee Roth.