Before 1923 there was almost no lead in the atmosphere, and that since that time lead levels had climbed steadily and dangerously.
Blueprint as a metaphor for a design or plan is much overworked. If the temptation to use it is irresistible, at least remember that a blueprint is a completed plan, not a preliminary one.
Canvas tarpaulin, and a piece of old carpet. I’m not sure that they didn’t lay an old wardrobe on top of that, just to
Clearly no thinking presence behind any of the actions of the cells. It all just happens, smoothly and repeatedly and so reliably
Dilemma. ‘The chief dilemma facing Mr Greenspan is whether or not to raise interest rates’ (Sunday Times). Dilemma does not mean just any difficulty or predicament. Strictly speaking, it applies only...
Disinterested, uninterested. ‘Gerulaitis, after appearing almost disinterested in the first set, took a 5–1 lead in the second’ (The New York Times). A participant in a tennis match might appear unint...
Fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman’s apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.
Fours
Future. As an adjective, the word is often used unnecessarily: ‘He refused to say what his future plans were’ (Daily Telegraph); ‘The parties are prepared to say little about how they see their future...
Galaxies of the universe are racing away from us, but that they are doing so at a rate that is accelerating.
Hadrons—a collective term used by physicists for protons, neutrons and other particles governed by the strong nuclear force.
Hanged. ‘It was disclosed that a young white official had been found hanged to death in his cell …’ (The New York Times). ‘Hanged to death’ is redundant. So too, for that matter, are ‘starved to death...
He sees our lineal success as a fortunate fluke: Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishing...
Headed instead across the field to the Magna Carta memorial, a little open-air rotunda erected in 1957 by the American Bar Association and memorable today as the only decent thing ever done by lawyers...
If. Problems often arise in deciding whether if is introducing a subjunctive clause (‘If I were …’) or an indicative one (‘If I was …’). The distinction is straightforward. When if introduces a notion...
In the words of Carl Sagan.
In the words of the physicist Michio Kaku, who goes on: In some sense, gravity does not exist; what moves the planets and stars is the distortion of space and time. Of
It occurred to me with a certain uncomfortable forcefulness that I didn’t know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on.
Lunar material, it is thought, came from the Earth’s crust, not its core, which is why the Moon has so little iron while we have a lot.
Ocean floors everywhere were so comparatively youthful. None had ever been found to be older than about 175 million years, which was a puzzle because continental rocks were often billions of years old...
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