Questions tagged [science]
The use of English in science.
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Choosing an English name for a national science research institute [duplicate]
I'm part of a group tasked with selecting an English name for a national science institute. There are a few choices, with what seem to be only subjective differences.
I'm using Scandinavia below as a ...
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Is an article required before an abbreviation? [duplicate]
I have already checked this question "https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/549504/is-an-article-required-before-a-math-variable" and understood that an article is not needed before a ...
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Can there be the usage of "of" instead of "from"? [duplicate]
These ‘near-Earth objects’, or NEOs, are the size of mountains and include anything within 50 million kilometers of Earth’s orbit.
The previous extract comes from a scientific divulgation article. ...
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The usage of "side" [closed]
I am currently working on scientific writing in English. I am trying to describe a plane with an elliptical hole, and this hole has two cracks. The cracks are collinear, positioned on the left and ...
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Word is a Microsoft-developed application vs Word is an application developed by Microsoft [duplicate]
What is the best type of structure out of the following two possible structures for academic writing in scientific papers, one with a sentence in passive(A), and one with an adjective(B)?
A- Word is ...
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Idiom for model organism / prototypical example / "MNIST of X"
I'm looking for idioms or phrases conveying something similar to one of the following:
a toy example on which practitioners of X usually test a new method first, as it's expected that if a method ...
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Etymology of lamotialnini, a type of cicada [closed]
Lamotialnini are a tribe of cicadas. I haven't been able to find an etymology for this very odd-looking term and am wondering where it derives from. I'd appreciate any comments.
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Do animals have "gender"?
Studying animals in biology can we use gender instead of sex? Even native English authors use gender in articles in case of animals. Is it correct?
Examples:
Gender-Based Differences in Rats after ...
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Is catechin an ingredient, a composition, or a compound of green tea?
I have a feeling that the word "ingredient" implies that it was intended to be there by human, while catechin is not an additive, but was naturally in the tea leaves. Giving another example, ...
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Can "consider" always replace "take into account" in scientific writing?
Consider these two instructions to a science problem:
Calculate the velocity. Consider the effect of air resistance.
Calculate the velocity. Take into account the effect of air resistance.
For me, ...
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Can 'increase' be used to simply describe a difference in value between two groups without a temporal connotation?
I see the word 'increase' used a lot in science writing to describe a greater average value in one group compared to another. For example:
There was an increase in wealth among women compared to men
...
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Possessive Contraction over Equations and Mathematical/Physics Laws
In my mother language, Spanish, when we refer to a famous equation, say those for electromagnetism, we say "Ecuaciones de Maxwell". This translates, literally, as "Equations of Maxwell&...
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Words describing an event that has an unspecified time or place
Looking for a single word derived form word like 'temporal', that would described event that has unspecified time of occurrence.
First thought was 'temporamental', but looks like it's not an actual ...
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Quotation mark use (one word) in software engineering paper
I'm currently researching the origins of a well known software engineering model - the waterfall model. The paper most cited for the model didn't invent the model, but rather said that it doesnt work ...
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Is Einstein's geodesic a metaphor or an idiom? [closed]
Is Einstein's geodesic a metaphor or an idiom?
I am applying semantic theory to physical theory to bridge the two realities and have found the discussion on metaphor and odium illuminates this purpose....
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Opposite of invariant
I look for the opposite of "invariant" in the context of scientific language.
If you look at this example sentence:
[...] Although it is translationally and rotationally invariant,
it is ...
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Computational complexity: how to express what the function depends on?
In computer science, algorithms are often characterized by their computational complexity — for example, a primitive sorting algorithm’s complexity may be O(n2) where n is the size of the input list. ...
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Use of "paper" / "study" / ... in scientific publications
In my research paper I used the phrase "this paper" to refer to the one I am writing and sometimes I write "the [other] paper" to refer to some other paper. The editor replaced &...
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an atom vs the atom [duplicate]
In Britannica's Atom term, some general sentences about an atom use "an atom", and others "the atom", why?
Sentences with "an atom":
The behaviour of an atom is strongly ...
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manifests or manifests itself
The sentence (from University Physics book, the image of full text is attached):
The work done by nonconservative forces manifests itself as changes in the
internal energy of objects.
Can we delete ...
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Let us suppose vs Suppose [closed]
When should we use "Let us suppose", and when "Suppose" in science academic articles?
Example 1:
Suppose the electric field lines in a region of space are straight lines.
or
...
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The pronunciation of "sciurine" (pertaining to squirrels)
I am intrigued by the pronunciation for the adjective "sciurine", meaning of or pertaining to the the family of Sciuridae (squirrels and similar rodents).
In Wiktionary, the pronunciation in ...
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Synonym for un-scientific book by researcher
I am looking for a synonym for a kind of book/genre, that contains interesting information, but is not aimed at the scientific community, being polemical / political and not stringent enough to be ...
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abbreviations for "standard deviation" when used as an informal unit
I am looking for some advice for abbreviating "standard deviation" when it is used in an informal sense as a mathematical unit, especially with regard to financial usage. This often crops up ...
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Term to describe how much something has changed from its original configuration
Is there a term that describes how far removed or how many change steps are between two given states or configurations?
Complexity is a term to describe that something is intricate or complicated, but ...
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Word for a physicist studying mechanics?
For many fields there is a word for a person studying it. In math there is analyst for analysis, algebraist for algebra, and geometer for geometry.
Is there an equivalent word for a physicist studying ...
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What does this sentence actually mean?
I have encountered this sentence in an editing assignment
Many patients continue to have pain and limited function and require some other forms of treatment.
I was wondering if this is equivalent to ...
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"-Based" vs. " Based"
I am in the process of finalizing an academic research paper and I am struggling to identify the correct hyphenation for the title:
Option 1: Adaptive Chirplet Transform-Based Machine Learning for ...
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Is it redundant to say "global pandemic"? [duplicate]
It seems that the word pandemic is generally understood to refer to a large or global geographic area. Is it therefore redundant to say "global pandemic" in a sentence such as, "The ...
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Is there any single word in English to represent domain of "logic and science" together?
Is there any single word in English to represent domain of "logic and science" together?
Background
Some of my friends are going to start an online movement whose main purpose would be ...
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Is there a word in logic, or science, that means getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions?
Is there a word in logic, or science, that means getting the right conclusion from the wrong set of presumptions? Or alternatively, something is correct, but the explanation of why is incorrect. Is ...
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Is "get stuck" a proper term in academic writing?
I am writing to inquire the usage of "get stuck" in academic writing. Here is my draft:
this design could get stuck in a bad local minima and therefore is not desired.
I use Google Scholar to ...
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Is there a word to describe a plausible but incorrect explanation? [duplicate]
I'm thinking of something where somebody (with no malicious intention) offers a very plausible and scientific-sounding explanation (not a theory but something presented as a series of facts) such that ...
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Phrases for qualitative comparison
Suppose we have find a relation between two quantities X and Y. When we say "The more Y, the more X" is it implied that the relation between Y and X is linear?
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Why does the term Petri Dishes appear so regularly in political discourse nowadays?
On three occasions on Twitter and other social media platforms, the term "Petri Dishes" appears in a non-scientific context. Is this just a recent fad? It appears to be in the lexicon of many of our ...
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Word for falsely declaring something an anomaly, when it is actually typical?
Is there a term for incorrectly distinguishing something to be not part of a common category of items, saying a sub-group is too unique to be considered to be part of the larger category, even though ...
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A better word/phrase to describe "a more..." in a scientific paper
I am writing a scientific paper on how a cancer staging system may be improved. However, I am a non-native English speaker, and I am concerned that my current title reflects that too much.
Please, ...
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Word for meaning across the solar system
Is there a single term in english that means "to cross or to traverse a solar system"?
For crossing the Atlantic we have transatlantic, to cross the continent we have transcontinental and even to ...
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Does "corroborate" in a scientific context imply confirmation rather "either confirmation or rejection" of findings from previous studies?
I am a non-native English speaker writing a scientific paper.
I have question concerning the word corroborate. In my native language, one might say that a research project aim to corroborate ...
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Should I use a hyphen in "patient tailored" vs "patient-tailored"?
Being a non-native English speaker, I was wondering which is most correct?
(1) Patient-tailored staging of xx carcinoma, or
(2) Patient tailored staging of xx carcinoma?
It is for a scientific ...
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Mathematical Jargon when choosing for determinacy
What is the usual expression a mathematician uses when he has to make a choice in order limit an over-determined structure, in order to continue his argument?
For instance, when a structure is over-...
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Are the words bathymetry and bathymetric interchangable?
In my mind these both work...
1) I performed a bathymetry survey. I gave the client the bathymetry data.
2) I performed a bathymetric survey. I gave the client the bathymetric data.
A web search ...
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How to describe factors leading to a negative event?
Being a non-native English speaker, I am looking for an appropriate verb/phrase to describe the negative event as consequence of two health factors.
My best shot is "precipitate"; however, I am ...
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Can a model or hypothesis "assume?"
The model assumes such and such.
The hypothesis assumes such and such.
In scientific writing, I commonly see similar phrases indicating the construction or use of a model with an assumption. It is so ...
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What does "has been described in other work" mean in this sentence? [closed]
I'm currently reading a book about chemistry. Here is a sentence that I faced and didn't understand:
This procedure has been described in other work from our laboratory
I don't get what it ...
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Did the meaning of "significant" change in the 20th century?
In Do We Really Need the S-word? in 'American Scientist', the author Megan D. Higgs writes
Did the people who introduced the word’s use in statistics intend for it to be interpreted according to ...
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How to avoid overusing 'the' in objective writing
I'm writing an experimental process description and I feel like i'm overusing 'the'.
The plastic tube leading out the bottom of the Vayyar equipment (again the tube on the left) is fed through ...
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Word for an object involved in a collision?
I want a word that is used to mean an object involved in a collision, for example, say two tennis balls collide - ball 1 and ball 2 - what would be a word that could describe either ball, only in the ...
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Should I use the formula or the name of the chemical in a sentence?
In a scientific paper, when quoting a chemical, is it more appropriate to write its formula or its name?
For example:
Ion exchange removed nitrate ions from solution.
Or:
Ion exchange removed ...
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When should antibody/antigen be pluralised?
I am doing my thesis corrections, and my examiner (an engineer) has different ideas about whether the word should be pluralised than those I am used to, as I am a non-biochemist, I wanted advice on ...
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