2 ms·
I was surprised to read "Employing this strategy, the researchers measured glucose concentrations as small as a few millionths of a mole" in an article publishe
by bluenose69 3y ago
I was surprised to read "Employing this strategy, the researchers measured glucose concentrations as small as a few millionths of a mole" in an article published on an NIST website.
I fear that they, like so many organizations, must employ non-experts to interview experts and write stories. But getting the unit of concentration wrong? (Later in the sentence they do note that moles refer to quantity, not concentrations, so the whole sentence is self-contradictory.)
This problem is so common I think it might make sense to suggest a common solution. Perhaps an organization specializing in X ought to hire one member of the writing team who has a degree in X, to look over material before it goes out to the world. Or at least pay one of the experts on a per-case basis, say a day of salary for a half hour of work, to go over material before it is published.
- ramon156 3y agoI honestly just hope it's satire, it almost feels on purpose
- ramon156 3y agoI honestly just hope it's satire, it almost feels on purpose
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- WhyUVoteGarbage 3y agoTechnical correctness and public relations are natural enemies. The original material comes from scientists who know what they are doing, but they aren't allowed to write their own press releases. For scientific papers, the scientists are already encumbered by layers of review that make it difficult to meet deadlines for publishing.
- admissionsguy 3y agoI instinctively read it as referring to molar concentration. It is actually common in chemistry to say "10-mole solution", which means 10 moles per litre. The per litre part is implicit, which confused me greatly during undergrad classes. The actual unit of 1 mol/L is called a molar.
- bluenose69 3y agoYup, I knew a postdoc once who didn't like to say litre; the first time I first heard him say "mole per dm cubed" I didn't know what he meant. (He also had an accent.)