Progression of Science

choi

David A Shaywitz, The Scientific Blind Spot; Knowledge is less a canon than a consensus. Wall Street Journal, Nov 19, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 13590368047244.html
(book review on Samuel Arbesman, The Half-Life of Facts; Why everything we know has an expiration date. Current, 2012)

Quote: "Mr Arbesman illustrates the speed of technological advancement with examples ranging from the magnetic properties of iron—it has become twice as magnetic every five years as purification techniques have improved—to the average distance of daily travel in France, which has exponentially increased over the past two centuries.

Note:
(a) spinach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach
(section 3.1.1 Iron)
(i) oxalic acid (HOOC-COOH)  草酸
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid
(ii) oxalate 草酸鹽
(iii) Etymology: Latin oxalis

Oxalis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis
(a genus 屬)
(iv) Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Iron. National Institute of Health, undated.
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/
(Table 2)

* heme 血紅素 in hemoglobin 血紅素蛋白 in red blood cell 紅血球

(b) paleography (n): "the study of ancient writings and inscriptions"

(c)
(i) The Wife of Bath's Tale
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wife_of_Bath%27s_Tale
(and prologue; section 1 Synopsis)
(ii) Karen Eva Carr, The Wife of Bath's Tale. Chaucer for Kids!  Oct 18, 2012
http://www.historyforkids.org/le ... wifeofbathstale.htm
("a woman from the town of Bath, in England, which was called that because there were old Roman baths there")
(iii) Bath, Somerset
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

(d)
(i) For Brontosaurus, see Apatosaurus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) Brontosaurus (n; New Latin, from Greek brontē thunder + sauros lizard)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brontosaurus
(iii) Othniel Charles Marsh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othniel_Charles_Marsh
(1831-1899; American)

(e) Clayton Christensen is a professor with Harvard Business School.
(f) The "meso-" or "mes-" in a combination word "mesofact" is Latin, from Greek, defined as
"1: mid : in the middle <mesocarp>
2: intermediate (as in size or type) <mesomorph> <meson>"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mes-
(g) Daniel Kahneman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman
(1934- ; an Israeli American; winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences)
(h) Ignaz Semmelweis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
(1818-1865; a Hungarian physician now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures; Described as the "savior of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever 產褥熱 could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics)