Today I Learned:
1) The "Menten" in "Michaelis-Menten kinetics" refers to Maude Menton, a Canadian MD from the turn of the 20th Century. From her wiki page, it looks like she was a heck of an interesting person. Quote, "Skloot portrays Menten as a petite dynamo of a woman who wore "Paris hats, blue dresses with stained-glass hues, and Buster Brown shoes." She drove a Model T Ford through the University of Pittsburgh area for some 32 years and enjoyed many adventurous and artistic hobbies. She played the clarinet, painted paintings worthy of art exhibitions, climbed mountains, went on an Arctic expedition, and enjoyed astronomy. She also mastered several languages, including Russian, French, German, Italian, and at least one Native-American language." Oh, and she got her full professorship in 1948, at the age of 70. If that had happened closer to our time, I would have wondered whether it spoke more to sexism in science or to the fiercely competitive nature of academia. Given the time period, though, I'm pretty sure that was mostly sexism.
2) Speaking of Michaelis-Menten kinetics, today I learned that Michaelis-Menten kinetics can be derived from one of two similar-sounding assumptions -- either that the intermediate reaction is at steady state, or that the intermediate reaction has zero flux. Somehow, apparently, the results you get from these two assumptions are slightly different?! Why? Aren't those the same assumption? I would really like to confirm this. Chris Lennox?
3) Free climbers *do* use climbing equipment like pistons and hooks and safety lines, but only as safeguards against slips and falls, not to make the climbing easier. Also, free-climbers often (always?) chalk their hands when the climb. In retrospect, those two facts should have been obvious, but they were not.
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