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You know when you're trying and trying to think of a word and you just can't find it? I went through this earlier today trying to find a word for "why something works the way it does" (I finally settled for "mechanism" after going through functioning, behavior, chemistry, structure-function relationship, and physiology, but it's still not quite what I wanted to say.)
Anyway, I just ran into another word quandry. New research has brought into question the traditional model of P. aeruginosa quorum sensing, by showing that environmental conditions can dramatically change Las and Rhl expression and that the Las-Rhl signalling hierarchy is not... Something. Changeable, unalterable, fixed, permanent... no, getting colder. Is transient, impermanent... not irreversible... irreversible! That seemed closer. What about "reversible"? Good, but reversible has other connotations in science (reversible reaction) so I didn't want that. I resorted to thesaurus.com, because the Word thesaurus doesn't have "reversible" in it. That brought me to "mutable": (a) capable of change or of being changed (b) capable of or liable to mutation. I liked the sound of that. But what about "immutable"?
Now something cool happened... thesarus.com offered up "unchangeable, abiding, ageless, changeless, constant, enduring, fixed, immovable, inflexible, invariable, permanent, perpetual, sacrosanct, stable, steadfast, unalterable, unmodifiable" for synonyms. Word's thesaurus gave me "unchallengeable, absolute, not able to be forfeited, unassailable, incontrovertible, undeniable, indisputable." Now I do know that a thesarus is not a dictionary, but this gave me the perfect word - the word I was probably subconsciously grasping towards - a word with the right literal meaning and the right connotation.
Immutable. It's an awesome word.
P.S. Yes, I'm a huge perfectionist. Believe me, I know. I've been working on this paper straight for the last three days. Whee, sleep deprivation! (Back to work now.)
P.P.S. This is fun... Hampshire Division III Title Generator. (I think Division III is like their undergrad thesis.) My favorite I've gotten so far is "A Holistic Approach to Underrepresented Media Criticisms : Truth and Fiction in Cave Paintings."
Anyway, I just ran into another word quandry. New research has brought into question the traditional model of P. aeruginosa quorum sensing, by showing that environmental conditions can dramatically change Las and Rhl expression and that the Las-Rhl signalling hierarchy is not... Something. Changeable, unalterable, fixed, permanent... no, getting colder. Is transient, impermanent... not irreversible... irreversible! That seemed closer. What about "reversible"? Good, but reversible has other connotations in science (reversible reaction) so I didn't want that. I resorted to thesaurus.com, because the Word thesaurus doesn't have "reversible" in it. That brought me to "mutable": (a) capable of change or of being changed (b) capable of or liable to mutation. I liked the sound of that. But what about "immutable"?
Now something cool happened... thesarus.com offered up "unchangeable, abiding, ageless, changeless, constant, enduring, fixed, immovable, inflexible, invariable, permanent, perpetual, sacrosanct, stable, steadfast, unalterable, unmodifiable" for synonyms. Word's thesaurus gave me "unchallengeable, absolute, not able to be forfeited, unassailable, incontrovertible, undeniable, indisputable." Now I do know that a thesarus is not a dictionary, but this gave me the perfect word - the word I was probably subconsciously grasping towards - a word with the right literal meaning and the right connotation.
Immutable. It's an awesome word.
P.S. Yes, I'm a huge perfectionist. Believe me, I know. I've been working on this paper straight for the last three days. Whee, sleep deprivation! (Back to work now.)
P.P.S. This is fun... Hampshire Division III Title Generator. (I think Division III is like their undergrad thesis.) My favorite I've gotten so far is "A Holistic Approach to Underrepresented Media Criticisms : Truth and Fiction in Cave Paintings."
