What Does ‘Neutral’ Mean in the Chemistry Lab?
Words Are the Major Currency in Scientific Communication—We Should Get Them Right
Can we, and should we, ever really be neutral? In a new series, Zócalo explores the idea of neutrality—in politics, sports, gender, journalism, international law, and more. In this essay, chemist Paul G. Jasien considers what “neutral” means in the lab and beyond.
The meanings of certain words can be less clear-cut than one might expect when they appear in different contexts. In Lewis Carroll’s classic book Through the Looking-Glass, for instance, the following conversation takes place between Alice and Humpty Dumpty:
“When I use a …
