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This reminds me of a paper that was published in Nature a while back called “Use Machine Learning to Find Energy Materials”. Scientific writing is so heavily st

This reminds me of a paper that was published in Nature a while back called “Use Machine Learning to Find Energy Materials”. Scientific writing is so heavily steeped in the passive voice that it was shocking to read a title that was active, even imperative. The author goes on to write the entire article in the same style, with short, active sentences - subject, verb, period. It felt like they wrote it and proofread it to ensure that every single sentence was as abrupt and pointed as possible, almost as a game. Very interesting writing style all things considered. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07820-6 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07820-6

elil17 4y ago
That's a comment, not a paper. They serve a different purpose than papers and therefor aren't required to have incomprehensible writing.
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mananaysiempre 4y ago
Academic CS has its share of whimsical titles; these are Conor McBride’s specialty[1], although he’s not at all the only practitioner[2,3]. In other areas it’s not as common, but I could name some famous physics[4] or maths papers. Titles that are not whimsical but straight to the point also do occur[5,6], and so do subtler jokes[7,8]. [1] “I am not a number—I am a free variable”, McBride, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1017472.1017477 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1017472.1017477 [2] “Observational equality, now!”, Altenkirch et al., https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1292597.1292608 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1292597.1292608 [3] “Functional programming with bananas, lenses, envelopes and barbed wire”, Meijer et al., https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3540543961_7 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3540543961_7 [4] “The eightfold way”, Gell-Mann, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4008239 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4008239 [5] “What are principal typings and what are they good for?”, Jim, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/237721.237728 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/237721.237728 [6] “On the role of the Heisenberg group in harmonic analysis”, Howe, https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-mathematical-society-new-series/volume-3/issue-2/On-the-role-of-the-Heisenberg-group-in-harmonic-analysis/bams/1183547543.full https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-... [7] “(Para)bosons, (para)fermions, quons and other beasts in the menagerie of particle statistics”, Greenberg, Greenberger, Greenbergest, https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9306225 https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9306225 [8] “The origin of chemical elements”, Alpher, Bethe, Gamov, https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.73.803 https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.73.803, although that one led to some resentment from the first (and main) author

elil17 4y ago

That's a comment, not a paper. They serve a different purpose than papers and therefor aren't required to have incomprehensible writing.

deleted 4y ago
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mananaysiempre 4y ago

Academic CS has its share of whimsical titles; these are Conor McBride’s specialty[1], although he’s not at all the only practitioner[2,3]. In other areas it’s not as common, but I could name some famous physics[4] or maths papers. Titles that are not whimsical but straight to the point also do occur[5,6], and so do subtler jokes[7,8]. [1] “I am not a number—I am a free variable”, McBride, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1017472.1017477 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1017472.1017477 [2] “Observational equality, now!”, Altenkirch et al., https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1292597.1292608 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1292597.1292608 [3] “Functional programming with bananas, lenses, envelopes and barbed wire”, Meijer et al., https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3540543961_7 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3540543961_7 [4] “The eightfold way”, Gell-Mann, https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4008239 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4008239 [5] “What are principal typings and what are they good for?”, Jim, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/237721.237728 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/237721.237728 [6] “On the role of the Heisenberg group in harmonic analysis”, Howe, https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-mathematical-society-new-series/volume-3/issue-2/On-the-role-of-the-Heisenberg-group-in-harmonic-analysis/bams/1183547543.full https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-... [7] “(Para)bosons, (para)fermions, quons and other beasts in the menagerie of particle statistics”, Greenberg, Greenberger, Greenbergest, https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9306225 https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9306225 [8] “The origin of chemical elements”, Alpher, Bethe, Gamov, https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.73.803 https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.73.803, although that one led to some resentment from the first (and main) author