All quiet

Not much to report, really, but I feel like making a post, if only to share the following piece of gratuitous overwriting (from the 29th March issue of Science CiteTrack):

"Investigations of the ecology of planktonic marine organisms run into the problem of reconciling the anonymity of morphological uniformity with the potential for ubiquitous distribution in the continuity of the oceans and the observed genetic diversity."

I have no problem with the use of jargon words where necessary, but it's very important - especially in a general-interest publication like CiteTrack - to be clear and straightforward to avoid putting people off. For example, the above can be rewritten as:

"Investigations into plankton ecology are difficult because different species are similar in shape but genetically diverse, and may be widespread throughout the oceans."

While I'm here I'll also point you in the direction of the remarkably talented Alex Ries, whose xenobiological creativity has earned him a place on my first terraforming expedition...