“Tibor,” he said, “wie geht es Heute?”
“Es geht mir gut,” Tibor responded instantly.
They mutually loved their recollection and their use of German. It meant Goethe and Heine and Schiller and Kafka and Falada; both men, together, lived for this and on this.
Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, Deus Irae, 1976.
carapace （カメなどの）背甲
plastron （カメなどの）腹甲
Turtles, like frogs, cannot be mistaken for any other animal (Fig. 1.3). The body is encased within upper and lower bony shells (carapace and plastron, respectively). In some species, the upper and lower shells fit tightly together, completely protecting the limbs and head. Although turtles are only moderately speciose, they are ecologically diverse, with some fully aquatic (except for egg deposition) and others fully terrestrial. Some are tiny in size whereas others are gigantic, and some are herbivores and others are carnivores.
Laurie J. Vitt and Janalee P. Caldwell, Herpetology : An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles, 3rd ed., Academic Press, 2009, p.4.
オックスフォードの「生化学・分子生物学辞典」で、軟骨 cartilage の項を見たときに、そのひとつ前にあった単語が、コレ。”Cartesian diver” or “Cartesian devil”。「デカルトの潜水夫」または「デカルトの悪魔」。
Cartesian diver or Cartesian devil a device, devised as a toy, adapted as an ultramicrorespirometer, consisting of a small piece of capillary glass tubing open at one end and closed and slightly expanded at the other.
Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, revised edition, Oxford University Press, 2000
元々は「おもちゃ」の「ウルトラマイクロ呼吸計」？ 「ウルトラマイクロ呼吸計」よりは「おもちゃ」に惹かれて調べてみると、どこかで見たことがあるような、ないような。日本語では「浮沈子」(ふちんし) というらしい。理科の実験にも使われたりしているようだ。
A Cartesian diver or Cartesian devil is a classic science experiment, named for René Descartes, which demonstrates the principle of buoyancy (Archimedes’ principle) and the ideal gas law.
The Cartesian diver demonstrates not only buoyancy, but the implications of the ideal gas law and Pascal’s principle as well.
なんでも「アルキメデスの原理」のみならず「理想気体の法則」や「パスカルの原理」まで証明してくれるすぐれもののおもちゃであるらしい。すばらしい。画像は、Wikipedia から。ドイツのガラス工芸で有名なラウシャという町のお土産のようだ。これには悪魔というより「おばけ」という言葉がぴったりだ。かわいい「デカルトのおばけ」。ちなみに、ドイツ語でもデカルトの潜水夫 Cartesischer Taucher というらしい。