Thermal

Thermal (pronounced thur-muhl)

(1) Of, relating to, or caused by heat or temperature (also thermic); of, relating to, or of the nature of thermae.

(2) As (both noun and adjective) thermal blanket or thermal underwear (as a noun, always referred to in the plural (thermals) even if describing a single item), items designed to aid in or promote the retention of body heat.

(3) In meteorology, a column of rising air caused by local unequal heating by the sun of the land surface, especially such a current when not producing a cloud; widely used in aviation and of especial importance in gliding, a borrowing of the techniques used by birds. The air usually rises until it is in equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere.

(4) In stonemasonry, a rough finish created with a blowtorch.

1756: From the French thermal (buffon), from the New Latin thermalis, from the Ancient Greek θέρμη (thérmē) (heat; feverish heat), from the primitive Indo-European gwher (to heat, warm).  The construct was therm + -al (from the Latin adjectival suffix -ālis, or the French, Middle French & Old French -el, -al; used mostly but not exclusively with word of Latin origin).  The sense of "having to do with heat" is first recorded 1837; the noun meaning "rising current of relatively warm air" was first noted in 1933 in the context of aviation.  Geothermal first used in 1875; hydrothermal in 1855, exothermal in 1874; athermanous in 1839, hyperthermia in 1878, isotherm in 1850, endothermic in 1869 (1947 as applied in biology) and thermometer as early as the 1597 although the most familiar (pre-digital) version with mercury encased in glass, was invented by Fahrenheit in 1714.  Thermal is adjective in the singular and a noun in the singular or plural, thermally is the adverb.  The most common derivations are the adjectives hyperthermal and the adverb hyperthermally but in engineering and science there’s also therm, therma, thermacogenesis, thermae, aerothermal, thermometric, thermometrical & thermaesthesia.  Thermal is a noun, verb & adjective; the noun plural is thermals.

Thermal Reactive Nail Polish

Thermal reactive nail polishes change color depending on both body and ambient temperature.  Nail polish is especially suitable for thermal reactivity because the extremities of the body (fingertips, toes, ears & nose) vary in temperature much more than parts closer to the core.  Usefully, they work with even the thickest base and top-coats which affords additional protection for the thermal-reactive chemicals, the color-changing properties affected not at all if multiple coats are applied.

The process is entirely heat-dependent and thus constantly variable.  In this example the reaction produces purple in reaction to cold and aqua to warmth; because the temperature of the nail greatly can vary between base and tip, the ombré effect (colors blending from one hue to another) will fluctuate.  The chemical reaction does rely on the top coat being fully dry and, depending on manufacturer, this can take up to an hour.  The special properties don't last forever but, if correctly sealed, stored in a dark place and not exposed to extremes of heat and cold, the liquid will for months continue to be reactive.

Chemically, the thermal reactivity works because the polish is infused with a leuco (“white” in Ancient Greek) dye, the word a little misleading in this context because leuco dyes have two forms: one clear, the other colored. The reversible transition between the two colors may be caused by heat (thermochromism), light (photochromism) or pH (halochromism) and in other (often industrial) applications, it’s possible irreversibly to change colors, usually from a redox reaction.

For thermal nail polish, the dye comes packaged in tiny spheres called microcapsules, each only 1-10 microns in diameter but containing three chemicals: (1) leuco dye which changes color reversibly, the color depending on the dye which, when combined with a proton or hydrogen ion, becomes colorless.  (2) A weak acid which acts as a catalyst, donating the hydrogen ion.  (3) A solvent which induces a color change at a desired temperature.  When cool, the solvent solidifies, the hydrogen remaining stuck to the acid and thus not interacting with the colored dye.  When hot, the solvent melts, the weak acid dissociates, the hydrogen ion binds to the dye, and the dye is colorless.  The temperature-shift range is about 5ºF (3ºC).

Those not content with the commercially available color combinations easily can brew their own thermal reactive polish.  Leuco dyes are available in many colors and come as a powder, slurry, epoxy, or water-based ink but only the powder is suitable and the transition range should hover 88ºF (31ºC) because nails are cooler than body temperature.  The choice of polish color dictates the result.  A white polish will produce a pastel result, a pale color will switch between the original and the combination of the leuco and the color so a mix of pink polish and a blue leuco dye yields a color shift from pink to purple.

To mix, place 1-2 small ball bearings in empty nail polish bottle and fill with polish to about half-way.  Add leuco dye to achieve desired color (about ⅛ teaspoon) and, if ambient temperature is high, chill the bottle to see result.  When mixing, cap bottle and gently roll it; do not shake because this will cause cavitation, the formation of air bubbles which impede the blending.  If the polish is too thick, add a few drops of nail polish thinner or clear top-coat but never acetone or other nail polisher remover because these chemicals ruin the mix.  Glitter or holo may be added according to taste.

Lindsay Lohan on skis in fuchsia, Falling for Christmas (Netflix (2022)), her thermal base layer unknown.

When skiing or mountain climbing, thermal underwear is usually the ideal choice for what is called the “thermal base layer”, a combination which consists usually of a top and a pair of leggings.  Outer layers of ski clothing perform better when a thermal base layer is worn because the moisture from the body rapidly is wicked away in a capillary action, permitting the breathable fabrics of the outer garments more efficiently to dissipate the moisture more efficiently.  It’s often thought the only purpose of thermal underwear is to increase body temperature but it’s the symbiosis between the thermal base layer and the outer coverings which regulate body temperature, maintaining comfort in both colder and warmer conditions.  By volume, most thermal underwear is made from Polyester (a type of plastic called polypropylene), often augmented with Lycra and all these garments are produced in a very tight weave which delivers good thermal qualities and what the manufacturers call a high “breathability factor”.

Also used is fine wool which, being a natural fibre, is preferred by many and it does posses the virtues of offering both comfort and efficient thermal qualities.  The choice between the types of construction is less about specific differences in thermal performance than how one’s skin reacts and sometimes this is something which can be judged only after prolonged exposure in a variety of temperatures.  All types are available in both short and long (sleeves & legs) versions and because the material is so thin, the longer cuts intrude not at all upon the fit of gloves and boots and the choice is again one of personal preference although, in extreme conditions, the full-versions should always at least be packed.

Fecund & Fertile

Fecund (pronounced fuh-khunt, fee-kuhnd or fek-uhnd)

(1) Producing or capable of producing offspring, fruit, vegetation, etc in abundance; prolific; fruitful.

(2) Figuratively, highly productive or creative intellectually; innovative.

Circa 1525: From the mid-fifteenth century Middle English fecounde from the Middle French fecund, from the Old French fecund & fecont (fruitful), from the Latin fēcundus (fruitful, fertile, productive; rich, abundant (and related to the Latin fētus (offspring) and fēmina (“woman”)), from fe-kwondo-, an adjectival suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root dhei or dhe- (to suck, suckle), other derivatives meaning also “produce” & “yield”.  Fē in this case wasn’t a prefix but a link to fetus whereas -cundus was the adjectival suffix.  It replaced the late Middle English fecounde.  The spelling fecund was one of the “Latinizing” revisions to spelling which was part of the framework of early Modern English, (more or less) standardizing use and replacing the Middle English forms fecond, fecound & fecounde.  The Latin root itself proved fecund; from it came also felare (to suck), femina (woman (literally “she who suckles”)); felix (happy, auspicious, fruitful), fetus (offspring, pregnancy); fenum (hay (which seems literally to have meant “produce”)) and probably filia (daughter) & filius (son), assimilated from felios (originally “a suckling”).  The noun fecundity emerged in the early fifteenth century and was from the Latin fecunditatem (nominative fecunditas) (fruitfulness, fertility), from fecundus (fruitful, fertile).  The old spelling fœcund is obsolete.  Fecund is an adjective and fecundity & fecundation are nouns; the noun plural is fecundities.

In his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), Henry Fowler (1858–1933) noted without comment the shift in popular pronunciation but took the opportunity to cite the phrase of a literary critic (not a breed of which he much approved) who compared the words of HG Wells (1866-1946) & Horace Walpole (1717–1797): “The fecund Walpole and the facund Wells”.  The critic, Henry Fowler noted: “fished up the archaic facund for the sake of the play on words”.  Never much impressed by flashy displays of what he called a “pride of knowledge”, his objection here was that there was nothing in the sentence to give readers any idea of the change in meaning caused by the substituted vowel.  Both were from Latin adjectives, fēcundus (prolific) and facundus (elegant).

Fertile (pronounced fur-tl or fur-tahyl (mostly UK RP))

(1) Of land, bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops etc, abundantly; prolific.

(2) Of living creatures, bearing or capable of bearing offspring; Capable of growth or development.

(3) Abundantly productive.

(4) Conducive to productiveness.

(5) In biology, fertilized, as an egg or ovum; fecundated; capable of developing past the egg stage.

(6) In botany, capable of producing sexual reproductive structures; capable of causing fertilization, as an anther with fully developed pollen; having spore-bearing organs, as a frond.

(7) In physics (of a nuclide) capable of being transmuted into a fissile nuclide by irradiation with neutrons (Uranium 238 and thorium 232 are fertile nuclides); (a substance not itself fissile, but able to be converted into a fissile material by irradiation in a reactor).

(8) Figuratively, of the imagination, energy etc, active, productive, prolific.

1425–1475: From the Late Middle English fertil (bearing or producing abundantly), from the Old French fertile or the Latin fertilis (bearing in abundance, fruitful, productive), from ferō (I bear, carry) and .akin to ferre (to bear), from the primitive Indo-European root bher (to carry (also “to bear children”)).  The verb fertilize dates from the 1640s in the sense of “make fertile” although the use in biology meaning “unite with an egg cell” seems not to have been used until 1859 and use didn’t become widespread for another fifteen years.  The noun fertility emerged in the mid-fifteenth century, from the earlier fertilite, from the Old French fertilité, from the Latin fertilitatem (nominative fertilitas) (fruitfulness, fertility), from fertilis (fruitful, productive).  Dating from the 1660s, the noun fertilizer was initially specific to the technical literature associated with agriculture in the sense of “something that fertilizes (land)”, and was an agent noun from the verb fertilize.  In polite society, fertilizer was adopted as euphemism for “manure” (and certainly “shit”), use documented since 1846.  The noun fertilization is attested since 1857 and was a noun of action from fertilize; it was either a creation of the English-speaking world or a borrowing of the Modern French fertilisation.  The common antonyms are barren, infertile and sterile.  Fertile is an adjective, fertility, fertilisation & fertileness are nouns, fertilize fertilized & fertilizing are verbs.  Technical terms like sub-fertile, non-fertile etc are coined as required.

The term “Fertile Crescent” was coined in 1914 was coined by US-born University of Chicago archaeologist James Breasted (1865-1935); it referred to the strip of fertile land (in the shape of an irregular crescent) described the stretching from present-day Iraq through eastern Turkey and down the Syrian and Israeli coasts.  The significance of the area in human history was it was here more than ten-thousand years ago that settlements began the practice of structured, seasonal agriculture.  The Middle English synonym childing is long obsolete but the more modern term “at risk” (of falling pregnant) survives for certain statistical purposes and was once part of the construct of a “legal fiction” in which the age at which women were presumed to be able to conceive was set as high as 65; advances in medical technology have affected this.

The difference

So often are “fecund” & “fertile” used interchangeably that there may be case to be made that in general use they are practically synonyms.  However, the use is slanted because fertile is a common word and fecund is rare; it’s the use of fertile when, strictly speaking, fecund is correct which is the frequent practice.  Technically, the two have distinct meanings although there is some overlap and agriculture is a fine case-study: Fertile specifically refers to soil rich in nutrients and able to support the growth of plants.  Fecund can refer to soil capable of supporting plant growth but it has the additional layer of describing something capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth.  This can refer to animals, humans, bacteria or (figuratively), ideas.  Used interchangeably, expect between specialists who need to differentiate, this linguistic swapping probably doesn’t cause many misunderstandings because the context of conversations will tend to make the meaning clear and for most of use, the distinction between a soil capable of growing plants and one doing so prolifically is tiresomely technical.  Still, as a rule of thumb, fertile can be thought of as meaning “able to support the growth of offspring or produce” while fecund implies “producing either in healthy volumes”.

Ultimate fecundity: Fast breeding

Although there are differences in meaning, fertile and fecund tend to be used interchangeably, especially in agriculture.  As adjectives, the difference is that fecund means highly fertile whereas fertile is the positive side of the fertile/infertile binary; capable of producing crops or offspring.  Fecundity may thus be thought a measure of the extent to which fertility is realised.  In nuclear physics, fertile material is that which, while not itself fissile (ie fissionable by thermal neutrons) is able to be converted into fissile material by irradiation in a reactor.  Three basic fertile materials exist: thorium-232, uranium-234 & uranium-238 and when these materials capture neutrons, respectively they are converted into uranium-233, uranium-235 & fissile plutonium-239.  Artificial isotopes formed in the reactor which can be converted into fissile material by one neutron capture include plutonium-238 and plutonium-240 which convert respectively into plutonium-239 & plutonium-241.

Obviously fertile and recently fecund.  In July 2023 Lindsay Lohan announced the birth of her first child.

Further along the scale are the actinides which demand more than one neutron capture before arriving at an isotope which is both fissile and long-lived enough to capture another neutron and reason fission instead of decaying.  These strings include (1) plutonium-242 to americium-243 to curium-244 to curium-245, (2) uranium-236 to neptunium-237 to plutonium-238 to plutonium-239 and (3) americium-241 to curium-242 to curium-243 (or, more likely, curium-242 decays to plutonium-238, which also requires one additional neutron to reach a fissile nuclide).  Since these require a total of three or four thermal neutrons eventually to fission, and a thermal neutron fission generates typically only two to three neutrons, these nuclides represent a net loss of neutrons although, in a fast reactor, they may require fewer neutrons to achieve fission, as well as producing more neutrons when they do.

Fast breeder (fusion) reactors have existed in labs for decades but, because of the need to contain sustainably very high temperatures, the challenge has always been to build something which (1) produces more energy than it consumes and (2) does so indefinitely.  On paper (and physicists admit the design is now so well understood a conceptual diagram can be sketched on a sheet in minutes) the science and engineering works so all that stands in the way is economics.  The lure of the fast breeder reactor is that, theoretically endlessly, one can produce more fissile material than it consumes (they're constructed using fertile material either wrapped around the core or encased in fuel rods).  Because plutonium-238, plutonium-240 and plutonium-242 are fertile, their accumulation is more manageable than that produced in conventional thermal reactors.  On planet Earth, the economics remain un-compelling, practical application of the technology having been thirty years off since the mid-1950s.  One proposal however transcends economics because it solves an otherwise insoluble problem.  If a facility for the manufacture of fissile material for spacecraft nuclear propulsion could be located on a space facility located at a point beyond the gravitational pull of Earth, it would be safe both to transport fertile materials to the facility and there manufacture fissile material which could provide the energy required for space exploration.

Vantablack

Vantablack (pronounced van-tah-blak)

(1) A black material which absorbs 99.965% of light reaching its surface.

(2) A shade of black of extraordinary blackness.

(3) Used loosely, of or pertaining to something very black.   

2014: A coining in Modern English, the construct being Vanta (the acronym for Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays) + black.  Black (in the sense of the color (absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless)) was from the Middle English blak, black & blake, from the Old English blæc (black, dark (also “ink”), from the Proto-West Germanic blak, from the Proto-Germanic blakaz (burnt).  Related were the Dutch blaken (to burn), the Low German blak & black (blackness, black paint (black) ink) and the Old High German blah (black), possibly from the primitive Indo-European bhleg- (to burn, shine).

Vantablack is built from clusters of vertical nanotubes on a substrate using a modified chemical vapour deposition process (CVD).  When light strikes Vantablack, instead of reflecting back and thus being visible, it becomes trapped, bouncing among the tubes until absorbed, dissipating into heat.  The densities are impressive for physical stuff; each square centimetre contains about a billion nanotubes.  Industrially, it’s an improvement over previous products because it can be created at 750°f (400°c) whereas an earlier substance, developed by NASA, demanded a 1380°f (750°c) environment.  However, in manufacturing, this is expensive and, Vantablack can be grown only on materials capable of enduring this temperature, further limiting commercial application.  Despite this Vantablack is a functional improvement which also offers better thermal stability and a greater resistance to mechanical vibration.  First developed in the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, trademark is held by Surrey NanoSystems.  The blackest known material ever in earthly existence, Vantablack is used to improve the performance of both ground and space-based cameras, improve heat-absorption in solar arrays and prevent stray light entering telescopes.  The military apply it to thermal camouflage because if used to coat 3D objects, they appear visually flat “black holes” without any shape or depth.

Potential LVBD customer.  Lindsay Lohan and the quest for the perfect LBD.

Surrey Nanosystems in 2016 granted Sir Anish Kapoor (an Indian-born UK British sculptor), the sole licence exclusively to use Vantablack for all “artistic purposes”, meaning no other artist could produce work using the material.  The exclusivity clause attracted much criticism from other artists who claimed it was absurd to suggest an individual could enjoy sole rights to a color.  While that might have been the consequence, what Surry did was licence the use of a commercial product for certain limited purposes, something hardly unusual in industry.  What triggered the controversy was that it involved restricted artists producing their product for some commercial gain; there is nothing to prevent anyone creating an artwork using Vantablack; it just can’t be exhibited or sold and must exist only for personal enjoyment.  Some artists actually responded by producing and trade-making certain products and making them freely available to any artist except Sir Anish; he was banned.  Legal commentators and philosophers have about the written about what is clearly a restraint of trade and the consensus seems to be Surrey is on sound legal ground but there should be a debate about whether intellectual property in the matter of the use of materials should be extended to art.

Entropy

Entropy (pronounced en-truh-pee)

(1) In thermodynamics,  the capacity factor for thermal energy that is hidden with respect to temperature; an expression of the dispersal of energy; a measure of the energy is spread out in a process, or how widely spread out it becomes, at a specific temperature.

(2) In thermodynamics (on a macroscopic scale), a function of thermodynamic variables, as temperature, pressure, or composition, that is a measure of the energy not available for work during a thermodynamic process (a closed system evolves toward a state of maximum entropy).

(3) In statistical mechanics, a measure of the randomness of the microscopic constituents of a thermodynamic system (symbol=S).  Technically, a statistical measure of the disorder of a closed system expressed by S = k log P + c where P is the probability that a particular state of the system exists, k is the Boltzmann constant, and c is another constant).  Expressed as joules per kelvin, it's essentially a measure of the information and noise present in a signal.

(4) In data transmission and information theory, an expression of specific efficiency, a measure of the loss of information in a transmitted signal or message.

(5) In cosmology, a hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogeneity in which all matter is at a uniform temperature (heat death).

(6) In political science, a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration; the tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos (this definition widely used literally and figuratively in many fields.

(7) In modeling theory and applied modeling, a lack of pattern or organization; a state of marked disorder; a measure of the disorder present in a system.

1867: From the German Entropie, coined in 1865 by German physicist and mathematician Rudolph Clausius (1822–1888) by analogy with Energie (energy), replacing the root of Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon) (work) by the Ancient Greek τροπή (tropḗ) (transformation).  The Ancient Greek ἐντροπία (entropía) (a turning towards) is from energie, the construct being en (in) + trope (a turning, a transformation) from the primitive Indo-European trep (to turn).  Rudolph Clausius had for years been working on his theories before he coined the word Entropie to describe what he had been calling "the transformational content of the body."  The new word encapsulated the second law of thermodynamics as "the entropy of the universe tends toward a maximum" but Clausius thought the concept better illustrated by the mysterious disgregation (an series of equations explaining dissolution at the particle level), another of his coinings which never caught on in the same way.  Entropy & entropology are nouns, entropic is an adjective and entropically is an adverb; the noun plural is entropes.  The synonym entropia is an internationalism rarely used in English.

Entropy describes uncertainty or disorder in a system and, in casual use, refers to degradation or disorder in any situation, or to chaos, disorganization, or randomness in general.  In a technical sense, it is the gradual breakdown of energy and matter in the universe and is an important part of several theories which postulate how the universe will end.  The laws of thermodynamics describe the relationships between thermal energy, or heat, and other forms of energy, and how energy affects matter.  The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; the total quantity of energy in the universe stays the same. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is about the quality of energy.  It states that as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted. The second law also states there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate into a more disordered state; at a microscopic level, if a system is isolated, any natural process in that system progresses in the direction of increasing disorder, or entropy, of the system.  The second law also predicts the end of the universe, implying the universe will end when everything becomes the same temperature. This is the ultimate level of entropy; if everything is the same temperature, nothing can happen and energy can manifest only as the random motion of atoms and molecules.  Time would stop immediately after the point at which, for the first time since the point at which the big bang happened, everything was happening at the same time.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

The term entropology is a portmanteau word (the construct of the blend being entrop(y) +‎ (anthrop)ology) which was 1955 coined by the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) whose theories and models even today continue to underpin some of the framework of structural anthropology, the debt to him acknowledged by structuralists in many fields and apart from all else, in the social sciences, words like entropology are much admired.  It first appeared in his book Tristes Tropiques (Sad Tropics (1955)) a text itself structurally interesting, being in part travelogue, research paper and memoir, interspersed with philosophical musing on music, literature, history, architecture and sociology; these days it’d be called post-modern.  The essence of entropology is that the transformative path of human cultures (the sometimes separate, sometime parallel notion of “civilization” seemed not to trouble Lévi-Strauss) is inherently corrosive & disruptive.  It seemed a grim thesis but it must be admitted that by 1955, there was plenty of evidence to support his view.

A probably inaccurate representation of nothing.

The idea of nothing, in a universal sense in which literally nothing (energy, matter, space or time) exists is difficult to imagine, imaginable presumably only as infinite blackness although even that would seem to imply the spatial.  That nothingness is perhaps impossible to imagine or visualize doesn’t however prove it’s impossible but the mere fact matter, energy and time now exist in space does imply that because, were there ever nothing, it’s a challenge to explain how anything could have, from nothing, come into existence.  Despite that, it would be interesting if cosmologists could attempt to describe the mathematics of a model which would describe what conditions would have to prevail in order for there truly to be nothing.  That may or may not be possible but might be an interesting basis from which to work for those trying to explain things like dark matter & dark energy, either or both of which also may or may not exist.  Working with the existing universe seems not to be helpful in developing theories about the nature of all this supposedly missing (or invisible) matter and energy whereas were one, instead of working backwards as it were, instead to start with nothing and then work out how to add what seems to be missing (while remaining still not visible), the result might be interesting.

Monsoon

Monsoon (pronounced mon-soon)

(1) The seasonal wind of the Indian Ocean and southern Asia, blowing from the southwest in summer (associated with heavy rain) and from the northeast in winter.

(2) On the Indian sub-continent and in nearby countries, the season during which the southwest monsoon blows, commonly marked by heavy rains; the rainy season (known as the Asiatic monsoon).

(3) Any wind that changes directions with the seasons (rare) or any persistent wind established between water and adjoining land.

(4) In colloquial use, sudden, hard rain.

(5) Entire meteorological systems with such characteristics.

1547: From the Raj-era English monsoon (alternating trade wind of the Indian Ocean), from the now obsolete Dutch monssoen, from the Portuguese monção, from the earlier moução, from the Arabic موسم (mawsim) (time of year, appropriate season (for a voyage, pilgrimage etc.)), from وَسَمَ‎ (wasama) (to mark, to brand; he marked).  Monsoon has a specific technical meaning in meteorology but in casual use it’s sometimes used as a synonym for (especially sudden) hard rain as an alternative to terms like deluge, rainstorm, storm & squall.  Monsoon is a noun and monsoonal & monsoonish are adjectives; the noun plural is monsoons.

Lindsay Lohan caught in a monsoon in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).

The Arabic word came into use among Portuguese sailors crewing ships which plied the Indian Ocean trade routes.  In the Arabic, mawsim could be used to describe anything recurrent, especially annual events such as festivals and, confusingly to the Portuguese, it could reference difference seasons (spring, summer etc) because each could be associated with the appropriate time for some activity (a pilgrimage, a harvest et al).  Under the Raj, in the sub-continent and adjacent lands, it came to be applied specifically to the seasonal (April through October) south-westerly winds which both brought the rains and were best suited to the sailing ships making voyages to the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia).  Technically, the winter’s north-easterly winds were also a monsoon but because the summer monsoon generated much heavier rain, it came emphatically to be spoken of as "the monsoon".  Because of the similarity of the conditions, use of the word (as a technical term) has extended from the original (Asian-Australian) to describe the rain patterns in West Africa and the Americas associated with seasonal changes in the direction of prevailing winds but, because the change is not as dramatic (especially in North & South America), some meteorologists prefer other terms.

To a meteorologist a monsoon is not just the summer rains but a system of winds which influences the climate of a large area which stretches as far south as northern Australia, the prevailing direction reversing with the change in seasons.  Although affected by ocean temperatures, monsoons were long thought primarily caused by the much greater annual variation in temperature over large land masses but the influence of oceanic temperatures is now becoming clear.  This variation induces higher atmospheric pressure over the continents in the winter and much lower levels in summer, the disparity causing the strong winds to blow between the ocean and the land, accounting for the heavy seasonal rainfall.

Monsoon storm event over Tuscon, Arizona.

That climate change is caused by the increased levels of atmospheric CO₂ is now accepted by just about everybody except some right-wing fanatics and those who get their medical and scientific advice from their hairdressers or personal trainer.  In the last decade, enough data has been accumulated to build models which predict the changes the Asian-Australian monsoon is expected to undergo and although there are variations between them, all seem to suggest a net increase in monsoon rainfall on a seasonal mean, area-average basis, the causes essentially two-fold: The rise in the land-sea thermal contrast and, of greater significance, warming over the Indian Ocean which means the monsoon winds will carry more moisture to the sub-continent.  There are variations in estimates but typically most models suggest the increase in total rainfall over India will be around 5-10%.  That figure is often misunderstood because it refers to a long-term average number and given that in some years rainfall will actually be below average, in some years it will be much above and climate simulations also show different patterns of geographic distribution which means it’s difficult to predict specific outcomes except to say the trend-lines are upward.  The effect on the Asian-Australian monsoon of anthropogenic climate change is thus certain in direction (and to a degree in extent) but unpredictable at the margins.  The mechanism is well known:  A warming climate allows more moisture to be held in the atmosphere which means rainfall when it does occur will be heavier.  Carbon is a form of energy so more of it in the atmosphere means a more energetic atmosphere and thus climate events, when they occur, will probably tend to the extreme in frequency and severity.

Acephalous

Acephalous (pronounced ey-sef-uh-luhs)

(1) In zoology, a creature without a head or lacking a distinct head (applied to bivalve mollusks).

(2) In the social sciences, political science & sociology, a system of organisation in a society with no centralized authority (without a leader or ruler), where power is in some way distributed among all or some of the members of the community.

(3) In medicine, as (1) acephalia, a birth defect in which the head is wholly or substantially missing & (2), the congenital lack of a head (especially in a parasitic twin).

(4) In engineering, an internal combustion piston engine without a cylinder head.

(5) In botany, a plant having the style spring from the base, instead of from the apex (as is the case in certain ovaries).

(6) In information & communications technology (ICT), a class of hardware and software (variously headless browser, headless computer, headless server etc) assembled lacking some feature or object analogous with a “head” or “high-level” component.

(7) In prosody, deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable.

(8) In literature, a manuscript lacking the first portion of the text.

1725-1735: From French acéphale (the construct being acéphal(e) + -ous), from the Medieval Latin acephalous, from the Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos) (headless), the construct being ἀ- (a-) (not) + κεφαλή (kephalḗ) (head), thus synchronically: a- +‎ -cephalous.  The translingual prefix a- was from the Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) (not, without) and in English was used to form taxonomic names indicating a lack of some feature that might be expected.  The a- prefix (with differing etymologies) was also used to form words imparting various senses.  Acephalous & acephalic are adjectives, acephalousness, acephalia & acephaly are nouns and acephalously is an adverb; the noun plural is acephali.

In biology (although often literally synonymous with “headless”), it was also used to refer to organisms where the head(s) existed only partially, thus the special use of the comparative "more acephalous" and the superlative "most acephalous", the latter also potentially misleading because it referred to extreme malformation rather than absence (which would be something wholly acephalous).  In biology, the companion terms are anencephalous (without a brain), bicephalous (having two heads), monocephalous (used in botany to describe single-headed, un-branched composite plants) & polycephalous (many-headed).

Acephalous: Lindsay Lohan “headless woman” Halloween costume.

The word’s origins were in botany and zoology, the use in political discussion in the sense of “without a leader” dating from 1751.  The Acephali (plural of acephalus) were a people, said to live in Africa, which were the product of the imagination of the writers of Antiquity, said by both the Greek historian Herodotus (circa 487-circa 425 BC) and Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (circa 37–circa 100) to have no heads (sometimes removable heads) and Medieval historians picked up the notion in ecclesiastical histories, describing thus (1) the Eutychians (a Christian sect in the year 482 without a leader), (2) those bishops certain clergymen not under regular diocesan control and later a class of levelers in the time of Henry I (circa 1068–1135; King 1100-1135).  The word still sometimes appears when discussing religious orders, denominations (or even entire churches) which reject the notion of a separate priesthood or a hierarchical order including such as bishops, the ultimate evolution of which is popery.

Acephalousness in its age of mass production: Marie Antoinette (1755–1793; Queen Consort of France 1774-1792) kneeling next to her confessor, contemplates the guillotine on the day of her execution, 16 October 1793.  Colorized version of a line engraving with etching, 1815.

In political science, acephalous refers to societies without a leader or ruler in the Western sense of the word but it does not of necessity imply an absence of leadership or structure, just that the arrangements don’t revolve around the one ruler.  Among the best documented examples were the desert-dwelling tribes of West Africa (notably those inhabiting the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast (now Ghana)), the arrangements of which required the British colonial administrators (accustomed to the ways of India under the Raj with its Maharajas and institutionalized caste system) to adjust their methods somewhat to deal with notions such as distributed authority and collective decision making.  That said, acephalous has sometimes been used too freely.  It is inevitably misapplied when speaking of anarchist societies (except in idealized theoretical models) and often misleading if used of some notionally collectivist models which are often conventional leadership models in disguise or variations of the “dictatorship of the secretariat” typified by the early structure of Stalinism.

The Acephalous Commer TS3

A curious cul-de-sac in engineering, Commer’s acephalous TS3 Diesel engine (1954-1972) was a six-cylinder, two-stroke system, the three cylinders in a horizontal layout, each with two pistons with their crowns facing each other, the layout obviating any need for a cylinder head.  The base of each piston was attached to a connecting rod and a series of rockers which then attached to another connecting rod, joined to the single, centrally located crankshaft at the bottom of the block, a departure from other “opposed piston” designs, almost all of which used twin crankshafts.  The TS3 was compact, powerful and light, the power-to-weight ratio exceptional because without components such as a cylinder heads, camshafts or valve gear, internal friction was low and thermal efficiency commendably high, the low fuel consumption especially notable.  In other companies, engineers were attracted to the design but accountants were sceptical and there were doubts reliability could be maintained were capacity significantly increased (the TS3 was 3.3 litres (200 cubic inch) and when Chrysler purchased Commer in 1967, development ceased although an eight-piston prototype had performed faultlessly in extensive testing.  Production thus cease in 1972 but although used mostly in trucks, there was also a marine version, many examples of which are still running, the operators maintaining them in service because of the reliability, power and economy (although the exhaust emissions are at the shockingly toxic levels common in the 1960s).

Acephalous information & communications technology (ICT)

A headless computer (often a headless server) is a device designed to function without the usual “head” components (monitor, mouse, keyboard) being attached.  Headless systems are usually administered remotely, typically over a network connection although some still use serial links, especially those emulating legacy systems.  Deployed to save both space and money, numerous headless computers and servers still exist although the availability of KVM (and related) hardware which can permit even dozens of machines to be hard-wired to the one keyboard/mouse/monitor/ combination has curbed their proliferation.

A headless browser is a web browser without a graphical user interface (GUI) and can thus be controlled only be from a command-line interface or with a (usually) automated script, often deployed in a network environment.  Obviously not ideal for consumer use, they’re ideal for use in distributed test environments or automating tasks which rely on interaction between web pages.  Until methods of detection improved, headless browsers were a popular way of executing ploys such as credential stuffing, page-view building or automated clicking but there now little to suggest they’re now anymore frequently used as a vector for nefarious activity than conventional browsers with a GUI attached.

Browsing for nerds: Google’s acephalous Headless Chrome.

Headless software is analogous with but goes beyond the concept of a headless computer in that it’s designed specifically to function without not just a GUI or monitor but even the hardware necessary to support the things (notably the video card or port).  Whereas some software will fail to load if no video support is detected, headless software proceeds regardless, either because it’s written without such parameter checking or it includes responses which pass “false positives”, emulating the existence of absent software.  Headless software operated in a specialized (horizontal in terms of industries supplied but vertical in that the stuff exists usually in roles such as back-to-front-end comms on distributed servers) niche, the advantage being the two end can remain static (as some can be for years) while bridge between the two remains the more maintenance intensive application programming interface (API), the architecture affording great flexibility in the software stack.

Herringbone

Herringbone (pronounced her-ing-bohn)

(1) A pattern, the weave resembling the skeleton of a herring fish, consisting of adjoining vertical rows of slanting lines, any two contiguous lines forming either a V or an inverted V, used in masonry, textiles, embroidery etc and .  Also called chevron, chevron weave, herringbone weave; a type of twill weave having this pattern.

(2) A fabric constructed with this weave.

(3) A garment made from such a fabric, applied especially to jackets and coats.

(4) In skiing, a method of going up a slope in which a skier sets the skis in a form resembling a V, and, placing weight on the inside edges, advances the skis by turns using the poles from behind for push and support.

(5) A type of cirrocumulus cloud.

1645–1655: The construct was herring + bone.  Herring was from the Middle English hering, from the Old English hǣring, from the Proto-West Germanic hāring (herring) of unknown origin but it may be related to the Proto-Germanic hērą (hair) due to the similarity of the fish’s fine bones to hair. It was cognate with the Scots hering & haring, the Saterland Frisian Hiering & Häiring, the West Frisian hjerring, the Dutch haring, the German and Low German Hereng & Hering, the French hareng, the Norman ĥéren and the Latin haringus; all borrowings from the Germanic.  Bone is from the Middle English bon, from the Old English bān (bone, tusk; bone of a limb), from the Proto-Germanic bainą (bone), from bainaz (straight), from the primitive Indo-European bheyhz (to hit, strike, beat).  It was cognate with the Scots bane, been, bean, bein & bain (bone), the North Frisian bien (bone), the West Frisian bien (bone), the Dutch been (bone; leg), the Low German Been & Bein (bone), the German Bein (leg), the German Gebein (bones), the Swedish ben (bone; leg), the Norwegian and Icelandic bein (bone), the Breton benañ (to cut, hew), the Latin perfinēs (break through, break into pieces, shatter) and the Avestan byente (they fight, hit). It was related also to the Old Norse beinn (straight, right, favorable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen) (from which Middle English gained bain, bayne, bayn & beyn (direct, prompt), the Scots bein & bien (in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cozy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen), the Icelandic beinn (straight, direct, hospitable) and the Norwegian bein (straight, direct, easy to deal with).  The use to describe a type of cirrocumulus cloud dates from 1903.  The alternative form is herring-bone (not herring bone which would be a bone of a herring).

The herringbone shape (left) and a herring's bones (right).

The herringbone pattern picked up its rather fanciful name because of a resemblance to the fine bones of the fish.  First used in masonry, the motif has for centuries been used in wallpaper, mosaics, upholstery, fabrics, clothing and jewellery.  In engineering, the pattern is found also in the shape cut for some gears but this functionally deterministic.

Roman herringbone brickwork, Villa Rustica, Mehring, Trier-Saarburg, Rhineland, Germany.

The original herringbone design was a type of masonry construction (called opus spicatum, literally "spiked work”) used first in Ancient Rome, widely adopting during medieval times and especially associated with Gothic Revival architecture; it’s commonly seen today.  It’s defined by bricks, tiles or cut stone laid in a herringbone pattern and is a happy coincidence of style and structural integrity.  Although most associated with decorative use, in many cases the layout was an engineering necessity because if tiles or bricks are laid in straight lines, the structure is inherently weak whereas if built using oblique angles, under compression, loads are more evenly distributed.  One of the reasons so much has survived from antiquity is the longevity of the famously sticky Roman concrete, the durability thought in part due to chemical reactions with an unusual Roman ingredient: volcanic ash.

Lindsay Lohan in herringbone flat-cap.

Of gears

Although the term “herringbone cut gears” is more poetic, to engineers they’re known as double helical gears.  In both their manufacturing and operation they do present challenges, the tooling needed in their production demanding unusually fine tolerances and in use a higher degree of alignment must be guaranteed during installation.  Additionally, depending on use, there is sometimes the need periodically to make adjustments for backlash (although in certain applications they can be designed to have to have minimal backlash).  However, because of the advantages the herringbone structure offers over straight cut, spur or helical gears, the drawbacks can be considered an acceptable trade-off, the principle benefits being:

(1) Smoothness of operation and inherently lower vibration:  The herringbone shape inherently balances the load on the teeth, reducing vibration and generated noise.

(2) A high specific load capacity: The symmetrical design of herringbone gears offers a high surface area and an even distribution of load, meaning larger and more robust teeth may be used, making the design idea for transmitting high torque or power.

(3) A reduction in axial thrust: Probably the reasons engineers so favour the herringbone is that axial thrust can be reduced (in certain cases to the point of effective elimination).  With helical gears, the axial force imposed inherently acts to force gears apart whereas the herringbone gears have two helical sections facing each other, the interaction cancelling the axial thrust, vastly improving mechanical stability.

(4) Self-regulating tolerance for misalignment. Herringbone handle small variations in alignment better than spur gears or single helical gears, the opposing helix angles assisting in compensating for any axial misalignment, contributing to smoother gear meshing and extending the life of components.

(5) Heat dissipation qualities: The symmetrical structure assists heat dissipation because the opposing helices create a distribution of heat through a process called mutual heat-soak, reducing the risk of localized overheating, something which improves thermal efficiency by making the heat distribution pattern more uniform.

Gears: helical (left), herringbone (or double helical) (centre) and straight-cut (right).  Although road cars long ago abandoned them, straight-cut gears are still used in motorsport where drivers put up with their inherent whine and learn the techniques needed to handle the shifting.