I just finished the novel _Devil Bones_ written by Kathy Reichs. She's a
board-certified forensic anthropologist and a co-producer of the TV show
"Bones" (runs on USA and Fox). She is also past Vice President of the
American Academy of Forensic Scientists.
At one point her main character, Tempe Brennan, describes the thin
section she is going to slice from a femur.
"Using a very sharp diamond blade, you cut cross-sectional slices of
bone measuring one hundred microns in thickness. Or, at least they used
to. The micron was officially abolished in 1967 by the CGPM, the
intergalactic council on weights and measures. The micron is now the
micrometer. No matter. The little bugger is still .00004 of an inch.
That's why the slices are called thin sections." [page 118]
Now, I could fault Reichs for not putting a leading zero before the
decimal point. And, in an ideal world, she would not have felt obliged
to give an equivalent in inches. But she did a good thing and a great
thing. She recognized that the unit name should be micrometer. I wish
that Science magazine (AAAS) was up to speed on that issue. Amazingly,
though, she not only knows about the CGPM and this particular ruling,
she also cited it in the novel!
In the novel Reichs also spells out "degrees Celsius" at one point.
Recently I chided another author of novels in this genre, Patricia
Cornwell, for using "degrees centigrade".
What a bonanza in a great mystery novel -- micrometers instead of
microns. And a plug for CGPM to boot!
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
