Tempe Brennan? Does this take place in Arizona?
Does the reference to the inch mean that the book's audience is limited to
the U.S.?
I think the author neutralizes her respect for the CGPM by giving primacy to
the inch in her narrative. She is still saying that inch-pound should be the
standard of measurement.
And, why the "Intergalactic" council? Is this a futuristic story? If so,
gosh, hasn't the U.S. gone metric by, let's say, 2200?
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: 08 October, 2008 08:38
Subject: [USMA:41812] Mystery writer plugs CGPM
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
