Examples of Poor Writings from "The Science of Scientific Writing"

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-science-of-scientific-writing/1

Examples of Poor Writings from "The Science of Scientific Writing"

Example 1: The smallest of the URF’s (URFA6L), a 207-nucleotide (nt) reading frame
overlapping out of phase the NH2-terminal portion of the adenosinetriphosphatase
(ATPase) subunit 6 gene has been identified as the animal equivalent of the recently
discovered yeast H+-ATPase subunit 8 gene. The functional significance of the other
URF’s has been, on the contrary, elusive. Recently, however, immunoprecipitation
experiments with antibodies to purified, rotenone-sensitive NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase
[hereafter referred to as respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase or complex I]
from bovine heart, as well as enzyme fractionation studies, have indicated that six human
URF’s (that is, URF1, URF2, URF3, URF4, URF4L, and URF5, hereafter referred to as
ND1, ND2, ND3, ND4, ND4L, and ND5) encode subunits of complex I. This is a large
complex that also contains many subunits synthesized in the cytoplasm.

Example 2: Large earthquakes along a given fault segment do not occur at random
intervals because it takes time to accumulate the strain energy for the rupture. The rates at
which tectonic plates move and accumulate strain at their boundaries are approximately
uniform. Therefore, in first approximation, one may expect that large ruptures of the same
fault segment will occur at approximately constant time intervals. If subsequent main
shocks have different amounts of slip across the fault, then the recurrence time may vary,
and the basic idea of periodic mainshocks must be modified. For great plate boundary
ruptures the length and slip often vary by a factor of 2. Along the southern segment of the
San Andreas fault the recurrence interval is 145 years with variations of several decades.
The smaller the standard deviation of the average recurrence interval, the more specific
could be the long term prediction of a future mainshock.

Example 3: The enthalpy of hydrogen bond formation between the nucleoside bases
2’deoxyguanosine (dG) and 2’deoxycytidine (dC) has been determined by direct
measurement. dG and dC were derivatized at the 5’ and 3’ hydroxyls with
triisopropylsilyl groups to obtain solubility of the nucleosides in non-aqueous solvents
and to prevent the ribose hydroxyls from forming hydrogen bonds. From isoperibolic
titration measurements, the enthalpy of dC:dG base pair formation is -6.65±0.32 kcal/
mol.

Example 4: Transcription of the 5S RNA genes in the egg extract is TFIIIA-dependent.
This is surprising, because the concentration of TFIIIA is the same as in the oocyte
nuclear extract. The other transcription factors and RNA polymerase III are presumed to
be in excess over available TFIIIA, because tRNA genes are transcribed in the egg
extract. The addition of egg extract to the oocyte nuclear extract has two effects on
transcription efficiency. First, there is a general inhibition of transcription that can be
alleviated in part by supplementation with high concentrations of RNA polymerase III.
Second, egg extract destabilizes transcription complexes formed with oocyte but not
somatic 5S RNA genes.