These empirical intellectual scissors are key differences between science and other ways of knowing. Another name for scissors is shears. A dictionary that not only defines words but explains their origins is useful to help teachers show connections between other words and the ideas they represent. Using word plays allows you to start with something familiar to your audience. Connecting something new to something familiar strikes me as a good way to learn.
Dictionaries can be precsriptive or descriptive.
In talking with the public, we face the challenges of communicating, translating, and interpreting. Communicating is exchanging ideas, in some cases using words. Translating is needed when communicating between two people who use different languages. Interpreting is explaining, and is needed to flesh out the literal translation. DNA as Videotape Using language also is a way to refer to many ethnic backgrounds Prove, probe, test While the French may have their Academie Francaise to ensure the integrity of the French tongue, I don't see a need for an Academy Biotechnology.