Check out this 10 page excerpt (page 11 to page 20) published as a PDF-file (you´ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader) at Wiley´s website:

(PS: Headline is "The Yolk’s on You:
Egg Balancing and the Equinox")

URL: http://www.wiley.com/cda/cover/0,,0471409766|excerpt,00.pdf

(You will have to COPY AND PASTE the above URL as it "breaks up" in the middle due to the two commas)

"Magnificent Desolation"





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Magnificent Desolation on 2002-03-02 13:47 ]</font>

Sloppy science in the Bad Astronomy book. Right at the start of the quoted section, the BA says the shell is made of calcium. Later he correctly says calcium carbonate. The two are NOT synonomous. Calcium is a soft, light, highly reactive metal. Calcium carbonate is the stuff of egg shells, sea shells and limestone.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

I think sloppy is too strong a word. We say you need calcium for your bones, but really we mean calcium carbonate. So it's not so much sloppy as it is a shortcut, almost an expression. I don't think using it in this context is incorrect.

After all, there is a good deal of calcium in calcium carbonate...

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