Science

NNadir

(34,660 posts) Mon Dec 27, 2021, 04:04 PM Dec 2021

Annoying Peeve: Naming substances after the institution at which they are discovered sucks.

So today I'm reading a paper with this title: Selective Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Mine Ore by Cr-MIL Metal–Organic Frameworks (Charith Fonseka, Seongchul Ryu, Youngwoo Choo, Mark Mullett, Ramesh Thiruvenkatachari, Gayathri Naidu, and Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2021 9 (50), 16896-16904)

MIL? What the hell is MIL? Metal ionic liquid? Methylisoleucine? I looked up the synthesis in the supplementary data, nothing "MIL-like" was there either.

No, I had to poke around.

MIL is "Matérial Institut Lavoisier"

Another example of this stuff - metal organic framework (MOF) people do this a lot is UiO-66, a famous MOF named after the University of Oslo.

This kind of thing is not helpful to young people, or, speaking only for myself, old people either.

Pet Peeve over.

7 replies

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Annoying Peeve: Naming substances after the institution at which they are discovered sucks. (Original Post) NNadir Dec 2021 OP

The object lesson here should be N-rays ... eppur_se_muova Dec 2021 #1

This story is ably told in a wonderful little book I read years ago on the plane... NNadir Dec 2021 #2

I take it the title is in re. Pons and Fleischmann -- could be an interesting read, thanks. nt eppur_se_muova Dec 2021 #3

Yes, correct. It's a Wiley publication, and goes back to 1997, but probably still a good read... NNadir Dec 2021 #4

Post removed Post removed Mar 2024 #5

Well, at least we don't use "oil of Mirbane" or "Julia's alcohol" anymore. nt eppur_se_muova Mar 2024 #6

Well actually, I remember when we had to buy books on named reactions. One of the fun things about March's... NNadir Mar 2024 #7

eppur_se_muova

(37,391 posts)

1. The object lesson here should be N-rays ...

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Mon Dec 27, 2021, 06:01 PM

Dec 2021

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-ray

NNadir

(34,660 posts)

2. This story is ably told in a wonderful little book I read years ago on the plane...

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Reply #1)

Mon Dec 27, 2021, 06:23 PM

Dec 2021

Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science

It's a wonderful read.

eppur_se_muova

(37,391 posts)

3. I take it the title is in re. Pons and Fleischmann -- could be an interesting read, thanks. nt

Reply to NNadir (Reply #2)

Mon Dec 27, 2021, 06:28 PM

Dec 2021

NNadir

(34,660 posts)

4. Yes, correct. It's a Wiley publication, and goes back to 1997, but probably still a good read...

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Reply #3)

Mon Dec 27, 2021, 06:31 PM

Dec 2021

...if it's still in print.

Response to NNadir (Original post)

Name removed Message auto-removed

eppur_se_muova

(37,391 posts)

6. Well, at least we don't use "oil of Mirbane" or "Julia's alcohol" anymore. nt

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Sun Mar 10, 2024, 04:23 PM

Mar 2024

NNadir

(34,660 posts)

7. Well actually, I remember when we had to buy books on named reactions. One of the fun things about March's...

Reply to eppur_se_muova (Reply #6)

Mon Mar 11, 2024, 08:37 PM

Mar 2024

Advanced Organic Chemistry was that the names of reactions were stripped away in favor of a mechanistic description.

Personally, that was probably a better way to teach Organic Chemistry. One of the things that always annoyed me when non-chemists who talked about having to take organic chemistry for some other field complained "it's all memorization."

No, it's all mechanism, I think. Somewhere in my library is Lowry and Richardson's Theory and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry.

Organic synthesis used to be my life, but it's been many years since I even opened an organic chemistry monograph. I ended up in analytical chemistry, something of a surprise to me, but I got here by being there I guess.

Sigh...

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