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Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil

(www.wpri.com)
201 points geox | 2 comments | 17 Oct 24 23:09 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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sseagull ◴[19 Oct 24 16:47 UTC] No.41888878[source]▶
Chemist pet peeve:

“The oil catcher consists of a series of tubes that start at the tip of KOBO’s rostrum and funnel down into a beaker.”

That’s an Erlenmeyer flask, not a beaker. The quote gets it right in the next sentence. Just sayin’ :)

replies(2): >>41889667 #>>41895408 #
1. amanaplanacanal ◴[20 Oct 24 13:59 UTC] No.41895408[source]▶
Technical terminology is frequently different from common use.
replies(1): >>41896932 #
2. mikestew ◴[20 Oct 24 17:21 UTC] No.41896932[source]▶
That’s not even a “well, technically…”. My chemistry education stopped at high school 40 years ago, and even I remember the difference. It’s like confusing a bicycle with a car.

And note that the person quoted uses the term “flask” exclusively. The word “beaker” only shows up parenthetically, because the reporter spent their time in chemistry class asking, “when am I ever going to need to know this?”