Too Much Jargon! Recently I was reading something written by an ecologist who stated, ". . . more alien species invade mesic environments than xeric and hydric ones . . .". Being a mere plant pathologist I found some of these words rather unintelligible, so I thought I should look them up in my Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Alas, xeric was not in there. However, words like xerophile were. This means a plant that likes dry environments, so fair enough. Obviously alien species like a drink occasionally. I had more luck with hydric - "of hydrogen, containing hydrogen in chemical composition". This is a tad confusing - I would have thought that most environments had a bit of hydrogen attached to various other elements, with oxygen as water, for example. And why alien species should be so adverse to this fairly common element was not explained. However, enlightenment was finally forthcoming when I came across mesic, in the addendum at the back of the dictionary (where they put all the trendy new words so that they do not contaminate the mustiness of such delights as gurge and cenoby. (Incidentally, scholars of colloquial French will be pleased to know that merd is also in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.) Mesic means the same as mesonic, which refers to mesons. These, as I am sure you all aware, are sub-atomic particles which occur in cosmic rays. Hence the ecologist's statement does make some sense - it must be so much easier for alien species to invade cosmic rays than having to mess around getting through the earth's atmosphere, and then realising that the only place with a parking spot is either too dry, or contains that nasty hydrogen stuff. So the next time a small green man comes up to you and asks to be taken to your leader, you know he just likes a challenge. Bob O'Hara
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