The Gad About Town

Drip, Drip … Petrichor!

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Mark Aldrich

A 1964 article in Nature with the euphonious title, “Nature of argillaceous odour,” gave the world the not-as euphonious-sounding word, “petrichor.” In it, two researchers attempted to scientifically describe what it is we smell when we smell the world after a rain shower and to give it a name.

The two authors coined the word, “petrichor,” which I have been mispronouncing in my head since I first encountered it last year, when an article on the Huffington Post started making its social media rounds. It has a long “I,” so say it like this: “petra,” then “eye-core,” which is not how I hear it in my head, with a short “i.”
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Today in History: March 15

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Mark Aldrich

Today is the Ides of March. Members of the Roman Senate assassinated Julius Caesar, the Dictator of the Roman Republic, on this date in 44 B.C.E.

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I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance. The island called Juana, as well as the others in its neighborhood, is exceedingly fertile …
—Christopher Columbus’ Report on His First Voyage, March 15, 1493

From October 1492 to February 1493, Christopher Columbus and his expedition members explored the Caribbean, kidnapped about two dozen indigenous people as specimens, and grabbed birds, plants, and interesting rocks (gold) as other sorts of specimens. On this date in 1493, the expedition arrived back in Spain and Columbus dashed off a report in Spanish to the King and Queen of Spain, which was sent to Rome to be translated into Latin and printed. A copy from 1493 currently sits in the collection of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (video below the fold):
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