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Re: [ccp4bb]: summary of sulphate binding at ATP binding sites
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On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
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> On Thursday 20 February 2003 10:58 am, Mischa Machius wrote:
> > > The spelling in 'Sulphate' is correct, at least, for people who speak
> > > and write Brittish english.
> >
> > Just to be anal: sulfur is Latin which has never had a 'ph'. That's
> > Greek,
that's not true. The Greek had and have their own letter 'phi'.
Our "ph" is just a transliteration. I don't know who invented it,
it must have been somebody who tried to have Greek look more
pompous than Latin. (Or a Roman who wanted to single out the
unloved Greek.) The simple "f" would have done perfectly as e.g.
the Swedes and the Italians demonstrate. But nw it's too late,
"ph" is firmly established (at least for the time being).
> > Greek, which will be verified by Tassos. The Romans didn't like the
> > Greek and would be very upset. There was an article in Nature a long
> > time ago advocating to get rid of the Brittttish spelling of sulphur
> > (must have been by an Oxford linguist). So, it's not about British or
> > American spelling at all, solely about Latin vs. Greek spelling.
>
> So - you would also prefer 'Fosforus' for element 15?
no, because "phos" is Greek and "phorein" is Greek, and
so we just have to live with good old phosphorus. (Also,
we can thus avoid changing the element symbol to FO and
confusion with fluorine in shifted pdb file columns.)
Manfred
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Dr. Manfred Buehner Phone: +49-931-888-4100
Physiologische Chemie FAX: +49-931-888-4150
Theodor-Boveri-Institut fuer Biowissenschaften
Biozentrum der Universitaet Wuerzburg
Am Hubland, D-97074 WUERZBURG, Germany
Email: buehner@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de
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