{"id":181,"date":"2018-10-31T03:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T03:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tylerjford.com\/landing.html\/?p=181"},"modified":"2018-11-01T03:28:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T03:28:48","slug":"jargon-the-experts-delight-and-the-novices-bore-supernatant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tylerjford.com\/landing.html\/2018\/10\/31\/jargon-the-experts-delight-and-the-novices-bore-supernatant\/","title":{"rendered":"Jargon – The Expert\u2019s Delight and the Novice\u2019s Bore: Supernatant"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Check out this post on scientific jargon that I wrote for my friend Matthew Niederhuber\u2019s blog\u00a0.jargon<\/a>.<\/em>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Every field has jargon. Marketers talk of leads and conversions, cyclists speak of cadence and derailleurs, and programmers speak of grooming, for-loops, and much more. Jargon is everywhere. Both a boon and bane to understanding, jargon makes it difficult for any novice to get started in a field but makes it easy for experts to quickly communicate complex ideas to those in the know. Any word used only by experts in a field can be considered jargon. Scientists however, are perhaps the most egregious users of jargon.<\/p>\n

My good friend Matt Niederhuber recently started thinking about how scientists use jargon and has been working on a blog where he introduces readers to the history of scientific jargon. Interestingly, few scientists know where many of the words they use come from, but learning about a piece of scientific jargon\u2019s history can both provide one with a new way to get someone interested in science and reveal something about how science has advanced \u2013 the artistry of language serves as a proxy for the story of discovery.<\/p>\n

Supernatant<\/h2>\n

The word \u201csupernatant\u201d is a fantastic example of scientific jargon. I\u2019ve used it a million times but, the first time I saw it I probably thought it meant powerful vapor or something\u2026 I was very wrong. Simply put, the supernatant is the liquid portion left on top when a process produces solids and liquids or multiple distinct liquids.<\/p>\n

For example, say you put a bunch of muddy water in a glass and let it sit. After a little while the mud would sink to the bottom and the water would sit on top of it. The water would be the supernatant.<\/p>\n

On the face of it, supernatant appears to be a boring, mechanical word, but it has power in its specificity. When doing experiments, researchers often use procedures that separate complex mixtures into liquid and solid portions or multiple distinct liquid portions. The liquid that rests on top is the supernatant. Separating the supernatant from its counterpart may make it easier for a scientist to isolate something for an experiment. For example, when finished growing a bunch of cells, a researcher could separate the solid cells from their liquid waste (the supernatant). The researcher could then continue growing\/using the cells while measuring chemicals in the supernatant. If you tell a fellow researcher to remove the supernatant from a mixture, she will know precisely what you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, supernatant can also be used as an adjective to describe one thing floating on top of another. So, if you wanted to describe the whipped cream floating on top of your hot chocolate, you could call it the \u201csupernatant cream.\u201d While this seems somewhat superfluous (we just expect the cream to float after all), it does add a bit of flourish and specificity to the sentence.<\/p>\n

Like the noun form, the adjective has been used extensively in scientific settings. For example, one could say \u201cmix these two solutions together and then remove the supernatant liquid.\u201d However, I don\u2019t really remember anyone using it this way in the lab. This is possibly because you could just say \u201cremove the supernatant\u201d and there\u2019s really no need for the adjective form. Indeed some of the adjective forms like \u201csupernatant fluid, supernatant oil, supernatant liquid, or supernatant water\u201d peak in their usage prior to \u201csupernatant\u201d according to google books so it\u2019s possible that this use is going out of style.<\/p>\n

Floating above \u2013 The Supernatant Breakdown<\/h2>\n

Supernatant\u2019s two latin roots, \u201csuper\u201d and \u201cnatant\u201d make perfect sense for its scientific meaning.<\/p>\n