{"id":40988,"date":"2018-01-02T17:54:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T16:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=40988"},"modified":"2018-01-08T12:04:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T11:04:47","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-alpha-beta-gamma-zeta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2018\/01\/02\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-alpha-beta-gamma-zeta\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Alpha, beta, gamma . . . zeta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-32935\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"jeffrey_aronson\" width=\"84\" height=\"103\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Christmas issue of <em>The BMJ<\/em>, recently out, you can read about my exploration of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/29237602\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nonexistent authors<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> listed in citations in PubMed, a never ending source of general amusement in the form of misattributions and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/27974346\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">misspellings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I reported three varieties:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">apparent authors (such as Et Al and Anon), concealing the identities of real contributors;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">apparent authors whose \u201cnames\u201d are postnominals, such as \u201cPhil D\u201d;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">authors whose initials have been catalogued as surnames and surnames as initials;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A fourth group includes, among other variants, authors\u2019 names that are misspelled, such as \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24198687\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thomspon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d, or are names of other things, for example \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=iowa+md%5Bau%5D\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Iowa MD<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d and \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/17901499\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">York N<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d (Figure 1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-40990 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"547\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta2.png 547w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta2-300x149.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Figure 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A paper published in <em>The BMJ<\/em> (top), indexed in PubMed as being by \u201cYork N\u201d (bottom)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The third category made me wonder if any authors listed in PubMed had surnames the same as the names of the letters in the Greek alphabet; I found many (Table 1), as well as names that are identical to the names of Hebrew letters, such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/28627055\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gimmel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/26184346\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Daled<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/11257808\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lamed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/27696411\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">N\u016bn<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/28182947\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Resh<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Table 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Numbers of hits in PubMed of authors\u2019 surnames that are the names of letters in the Greek alphabet<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-40989 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"575\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta.png 550w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta-300x157.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">*A pseudonymous <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2489153\/pdf\/provmedsurgj00977-0002.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">paper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1841)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-40992 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"156\" \/>In addition to those listed in the table, there is a single paper by LM Zeta, but a series of seven others, titled &#8220;Surgical resurrections&#8221;, in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Postgraduate Medical Journal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, written under the pseudonym \u201cZeta\u201d by the surgeon Sir Vincent Zachary <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1081645\/pdf\/medhist00114-0098.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cope<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1881\u20131974; pictured), who is perhaps best remembered for his book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen in Rhyme<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1947), from which the following modernistic verse comes:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">The diagnostic problem of today<br \/>\nHas greatly changed \u2013<br \/>\nthe change has come to stay;<br \/>\nWe all have to confess, though with a sigh,<br \/>\nOn complicated tests we much rely<br \/>\nAnd use too little hand and ear and eye.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A different set of Greek letters featured in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/pr\/abstract\/10.1103\/PhysRev.73.803\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">paper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that appeared in the journal<\/span> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Physical Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 1948, titled \u201cThe origin of<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">chemical elements\u201d. The authors were listed as Alpher RA, Bethe H, and Gamow G (Figure 2). It is sometimes known as the \u03b1\u03b2\u03b3 paper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-40993 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"568\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta4.png 568w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta4-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Figure 2.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Part of the first page of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the \u03b1\u03b2\u03b3 paper<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/pr\/abstract\/10.1103\/PhysRev.70.572.2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1946<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the physicist George Gamow suggested that since general relativity predicted an exceptionally rapid early expansion of the cosmos during the Big Bang, all the nuclear reactions that generated elements must therefore have occurred within seconds. In order to help him calculate the quantities of elements formed, Gamow enlisted the help of Ralph Alpher, a graduate student at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. They proposed that the universe began in the form of a highly compressed neutron fluid, whose pressure fell as the universe expanded, causing free neutrons to decay into protons and electrons; neutron capture by the protons would have formed first deuterium and then heavier and heavier nuclei.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gamow later wrote that it \u201cseemed unfair to the Greek alphabet to have the article signed by Alpher and Gamow only, and so the name of Dr. Hans A. Bethe [of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York] (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in absentia<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) was inserted in preparing the manuscript for print\u201d. Bethe did not object to this gift authorship and, said Gamow, was \u201cquite helpful in subsequent discussions\u201d. Gamow also reported that he had been unable to persuade another colleague who had been involved in the work, R C Herman, to change his name to Delter. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the \u03b1\u03b2\u03b3 paper was dated 18 February 1948, it actually appeared, perhaps not inappropriately, on 1 April.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gamow\u2019s theory was only partly right\u2014apart from hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium, helium and lithium, chemical elements were probably not made during the Big Bang, as Gamow had hypothesised, but, as Fred Hoyle later <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/adsabs.harvard.edu\/full\/1954ApJS....1..121H\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">suggested<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, were created by stellar nucleosynthesis, i.e. produced in large stars at exceptionally high temperatures during the evolution of supernovae.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Articles by Gamow in which he popularised the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics were first published by C P Snow in the magazine <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Discovery<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and were later collected in two books for general consumption, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1940) and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (1945). The books were reprinted many times, and then published together in a paperback edition in 1965 as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mr Tompkins in Paperback<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. A so called \u201clibrary edition\u201d (Figure 3) was subsequently published\u2014in hardback!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-40994 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"266\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40995\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/01\/aronson_alpha_beta6.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Figure 3. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">George Gamow and the front cover of my hardback edition (1975) of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mr Tompkins in Paperback<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford&#8217;s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong>\u00a0None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Christmas issue of The BMJ, recently out, you can read about my exploration of nonexistent authors listed in citations in PubMed, a never ending source of general amusement [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2018\/01\/02\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-alpha-beta-gamma-zeta\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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Alpha, beta, gamma . . . zeta - The BMJ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2018\/01\/02\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-alpha-beta-gamma-zeta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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