Scientific Style I

1. Scientific Style I The eddy diffusion coefficient is estimated as a function of altitude, separately for the Jovian troposphere and mesosphere. The growth-rate and motion of particles is estimated for various substances: the water clouds are probably nucleated by NHCl, and sodium compounds are likely to be absent at and above the levels of the waters clouds. Complex organic molecules produced by the L photolysis of methane may possibly be the absorbers in the lower mesosphere which account for the low reflectivity of Jupiter in the near-ultraviolet. The optical frequency chromospheres are localized at or just below the Jovian tropopause

2. Scientific Style II The planet Venus floats, serene and lovely, in the sky of Earth, a bright pin-point of yellowish-white light. Seen or photographed through a telescope, a featureless disc is discerned; a vast unbroken and enigmatic cloud layer shields the surface from our view. No human eye has ever seen the ground of our nearest planetary neighbor. But we know a great deal about Venus. From radio telescope and space-vehicle observations, we know that the surface temperature is about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is about ninety times that which we experience at the surface of the earth. Since the planet’s gravity is about as strong as the Earth’s, there are ninety times more molecules in the atmosphere of Venus as in the atmosphere of Earth. This dense atmosphere acts as a kind of insulating blanket, keeping the surface hot through the greenhouse effect and smoothing out temperature differences from place to place.

3. Scientific Styles • Example I: Carl Sagan and E. E. Salpeter, “Particles, Environments, and Possible Ecologies in the Jovian Atmosphere,” Astrophysical Journal Supplement • Example II: Carl Sagan, “Venus is Hell,” The Cosmic Connection