Uncle Sam to put Aurora supercomputer to work on catalyst conundrums

The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has finally completed the installation of the Aurora supercomputer after a bevy of delays but scientists are already clamoring to put it to work. Boffins have been waiting on the system for years. Literally. The system was originally supposed to come online in 2021 but …

[MiguelC]

"what exactly makes them so deadly to microbial life has proven illusive"

but not as elusive as using the correct word....

[Hol314]

Re: "what exactly makes them so deadly to microbial life has proven illusive"

Well, forcing everyone to write in US English so as to spare us poor readers – allegedly – sure does not beat better proof-reading. In fact, the latter should be more than enough in my opinion…

[Jonathan Richards 1]

Re: "what exactly makes them so deadly to microbial life has proven illusive"

> write in US English

Yabbut, this isn't an ax/axe color/colour issue, nor even an elevator/lift one. "Elusive" and "Illusive" are different words with usefully different meanings (although almost exactly the same correct pronunciation).

Elusive a. 1719. That eludes or seeks to elude; also fig.

Illusive a. 1679. That tends to illude; productive of illusion or false impression; deceptive; illusory.

Elusive things are good at evading and escaping, illusive things are productive of wrong conclusions. In this context, i.e. the cicada wings, the wrong adjective is very wrong.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: "what exactly makes them so deadly to microbial life has proven illusive"

Agreed. While prescriptivism in English diction and usage is no more than wishful thinking, I doubt you'd find many educated people in the US who think "illusive" is an acceptable substitution for "elusive" even in AmEng. It's a straightforward homophonic confusion.

(Alas, we've lost the similar fight against "insure" versus "ensure", but then those two share an etymology – unlike elusive/illusive – and "insure" as a variant of "ensure" has been in use for centuries. Nothing to be done about it now.)

[Doctor Syntax]

Cicada wings

I wonder how that was discovered. I's not hard to imagine some apoplectic buffoon wanting to know why some damned idiot was wasting damned money investigating damned cicada wings. One of the great things about science is you never know what it's going to turn up next.