LPU
n.— «It’s refreshing to read about a discovery that isn’t just a tiny increment. Today’s scientists are under pressure to publish something new, leading to what some cynically call the LPU, or Least Publishable Unit. You find some new detail and publish it, showing the boss that you’re in a science journal, even though the “discovery” is just a tweak of stuff already known. (Nothing new here. The best description of this is from Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim, about a clueless young lecturer desperate for a job in 1950s England.)» —“The empathy cell” by Tom Spears Ottawa Citizen (Canada) Aug. 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Episode Archives
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