[meteorite-list] Fw: term definitions and usage

[Richard Montgomery]

Hello Listoids,

Ah!  Cleverly disguised as a neophyte question, my query as to usage of 
terms of age has spawned quite the rally of input!   (Actually, this is why 
I brought it up.)

-Richard Montgomery



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Korotev" <korotev at wustl.edu>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fw: term definitions and usage


>I attended my first scientific conference as a graduate student sometime in 
>the early 70's.  My first exposure to lunar geochronology was a session I 
>attended at that conference.  I was surprised to learn that the community 
>of isotope geochronologists was very contentious to the point of being 
>insulting and rude.  After nearly every talk somebody got up and asked a 
>pointed question or made a damning comment.
>
> After one talk someone in the audience got up and chastised the speaker 
> for having presented all his age data with the units "byr."  The chastiser 
> was very adamant that "billion years" was an obsolete and a 
> just-plain-wrong term, in part because the word billion means a different 
> things in America and Britain.  "The proper term is Ga for gigaannum (you 
> idiot)!"
>
> The next speaker got up and started his talk like this: "A nano gigaannum 
> ago at this conference we presented some data..."  It took almost until 
> the end of the sentence for the audience to appreciate the joke and erupt 
> into laughter.
>
> Randy Korotev
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