A mysterious term has appeared in scientific publishing: ‘vegetative electron microscopy/microscope.’ What’s behind this nonsensical phrase, and how did it get there?
The Rise of Tortured Phrases in Scientific Publishing
The Misadventures of Vegetative Electron Microscopy
A recent flurry of papers has brought to light a mysterious term: ‘vegetative electron microscopy/microscope.’ While it sounds like a new kind of microscope, this phrase is utterly nonsensical. There are scanning electron microscopes and tunnelling electron microscopes, but not ‘vegetative electron microscopes’.
One possible explanation for the emergence of this phrase lies in an old article from 1959, which was formatted into two columns using optical character recognition software. The words ‘vegetative’ and ‘electron microscopy’ appear next to each other on page 4, creating a ‘vegetative electron microscopy’ artefact due to text processing errors.
However, journalists at Retraction Watch have spotted another possible explanation. In Farsi, the phrases ‘scanning electron microscope‘ and ‘vegetative electron microscope’ sound extremely similar, with only a single diacritic character (nuqta) separating them. This tiny mistake in translation could easily lead to the creation of this phrase.
The Nun Too Far: A Tale of Misremembered Stories
Sometimes, Feedback receives stories that feel too good to be true. We doubt ourselves and wonder if reality is ever as neat as it seems. Take Charlie Wartnaby‘s story about his late father John, a curator at the Science Museum in London. It relates to the Scunthorpe problem: the difficulty of banning offensive words online.
While John‘s story isn’t strictly an example of the Scunthorpe problem, it is adjacent to it. Charlie explains that staff anticipated misbehaviour and drew up a list of profanities to block on the large screen. However, when a computer expert tried to use the machine, he inadvertently pulled up the entire list, allegedly including a visiting party of convent school children and supervising nuns.
Charlie Wartnaby was a British television presenter and journalist.
He worked as a reporter for the BBC's flagship news program, News at Ten, from 1989 to 1992.
Prior to that, he presented the BBC's children's magazine programme Blue Peter.
After leaving the BBC, Wartnaby went on to work in various roles in television production and journalism.
Feedback is prepared to believe 90 per cent of this story but draws the line at the nuns. We are willing to be wrong and invite readers to get in touch if they remember any convent school children being at the Science Museum on that fateful day.
Nuns are women who have dedicated their lives to a religious order, typically living in a convent or monastery.
They often take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Historically, nuns played a significant role in education, healthcare, and social welfare.
In the Middle Ages, they managed schools, hospitals, and orphanages.
Today, many orders focus on charity work, advocacy, and spiritual guidance.
The Yodeling Monkeys
Senior news editor Sophie Bushwick drew our attention to a press release claiming that monkeys are the world’s best yodellers. A study looked at ‘special anatomical structures‘ in apes and monkeys, called vocal membranes. These membranes allow monkeys to perform rapid transitions in frequency heard in Alpine yodelling.
However, Feedback went to find the accompanying audio recording with bated breath but was disappointed to discover a tufted capuchin monkey‘s call that sounded more like ‘skroark rark eek’ than an ululating Alpine yodel. A closer look reveals a missed opportunity: how about showing us a tufted capuchin ‘yodelling‘ instead of just describing it?
There are over 260 species of monkeys, ranging in size from 5 to 37 inches (13-94 cm) in length.
Monkeys belong to the order Primates, which also includes apes and lemurs.
They are found in various parts of the world, including tropical forests, savannas, and mountains.
Monkeys are known for their agility, intelligence, and social behavior.
Some species of monkeys are omnivores, while others are herbivores or carnivores.
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- newscientist.com | Is there such a thing as a vegetative electron microscope? Doubtful
