Feature Articles = Marketing in Science Dictionaries The Oxford science dictionaries say they included some "one- or two- page feature articles on important topics, and chronologies tracing the history of the key areas in...". While these features and chronologies contains useful information, in the scope of the dictionary they are just marketing devices. There aren't enough of them to represent the breadth of the subjects. For example, is GMO and Animal Learning the only two important topics in biology? Here are the lists of the features in the three key science dictionaries.

Biology

• biochemistry chronology
  
• cell biology chronology
  
• genetically modified organisms
  
• genetic chronology
  
• learning in animals
  
• microscopy chronology
  
• vitamins chronology

Chemistry

• atomic theory chronology
  
• biochemistry chronology
  
• crystal defects
  
• explosives chronology
  
• plastics chronology
  
• polymers

Physics

• atomic theory chronology
  
• big-bang theory
  
• cosmology chronology
  
• crystal defects
  
• electrical conductivity
  
• electronics chronology
  
• free-electron theory
  
• microscopy chronology
  
• magnetic resonance imaging
  
• optical astronomical telescopes
  
• solar system

Labels: dictionary, reference, science

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