From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   Brian M. Scott formulated the question :   
   > On Thu, 11 Dec 2014 18:45:33 -0500, William Vetter   
   >  wrote in   
   >  in   
   > rec.arts.sf.composition:   
   >   
   >> Brian M. Scott pretended :   
   >   
   >>> On Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:23:39 -0500, William Vetter   
   >>>  wrote in   
   >>>  in   
   >>> rec.arts.sf.composition:   
   >   
   >>> [...]   
   >   
   >>>> For a few years, I was taking pictures for a guy at NASA   
   >>>> Glenn, and he sent me a manuscript with my name on the   
   >>>> masthead for to comment/correct.  And this guy was   
   >>>> otherwise very agreeable to work with, but it took me   
   >>>> hours to figure out what he was even talking about when I   
   >>>> read his manuscripts.  It was full of lines like   
   >   
   >>>> "The substrate was reticulated."   
   >   
   >>> Not a very good example:  is a bog standard   
   >>> technical term in several fields, and I’ve been familiar   
   >>> with  since before I hit my teens.   
      
   These are not big words to me.  I don't remember what age I learned   
   them, and I don't care when you did.   
      
   >This is   
   >>> clear technical language.   
   >   
   >> Tell me what they would mean in solid state science, if   
   >> you know so much about clear technical language.   
   >   
   > Exactly what they say: the substrate (base) on which   
   > something was deposited   
      
   The closest field where the word substrate is used is coatings.  It   
   implies a deposition.  Where was the deposition?   
      
   Yes, I know substrate is a science word, because I'm not an idiot.   
      
   > or grown was reticulated (ruled in   
   > some kind of grid-like pattern).   
      
   It was a pattern of various-sized asterisks photolithographed on a   
   semiconductor wafer, and then etched with reactive ion etching to form   
   mesas on the surface that looked like six-pointed asterisks from the   
   top down.   
      
   I know that you will denounce me because I said "grid" above.  I said   
   that because it was simpler than describing this guy's lithography   
   mask.   
      
   In semiconductor fabrication, nobody uses the word "reticulate" in   
   place of etching.  They write etch when they mean etch.   
      
   > Someone in the field might   
   > well get even more out of it   
      
   I told you I worked with him on this project before he sent me his   
   manuscript, and that my name is on the publication, or do you think I   
   was talking out my ass?   
      
   > -- almost certainly if given   
   > the full context.   
      
   Well, I'd run the x-ray beam through a copper mesh sometimes before I   
   took a picture, and my boss liked to call it "reticulography" to the   
   funding agents, but in the literature it's called "the mesh technique."   
    That was the only other time I ever heard reticul____ used in my   
   field.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)