Say it like you mean it. Or say it like you want to confuse everybody.

In the interest of trying new things here at Get Your Science On!, I’d like to shorten things up a bit. I’m trying to be more concise in my life these days. So instead of having few long winded discussions, we will have several short discussions encompassing one point. I came across this sentence in a paper: “If biological fractionation effects driven by secular changes in siliceous production and preformed silica concentrations in paleosurface waters were the cause of local changes in downcore Ge/Si_opal, then there must also be spatial gradients in Ge/Si_opal across paleoproductivity gradients in today’s Southern Ocean and across those inferred for the glacial ocean.”

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS SENTENCE SAYS!

“If biological fractionation effects driven by secular changes in siliceous production and preformed silica concentrations in paleosurface waters”

Translation: If little phytoplanktons that lived in the oceans way way back when liked to take up more or less germanium (see: "Bizzy Bee" in the May section) because of the abundance or lack of silica in those ancient oceans…

“were the cause of local changes in downcore Ge/Si_opal”

Translation: and those phytoplanktons mucked up what we’re seeing in THIS mud core.

“then there must also be spatial gradients in Ge/Si_opal across paleoproductivity gradients”

Translation: then we must be able to find this mucking up in other places

“in today’s Southern Ocean and across those inferred for the glacial ocean”

Translation: like in the Southern Ocean today or someplace a lot like it.

You see what I have to contend with? That was just one sentence out of a 10 page paper filled with sentences just like it. It's enough to throw your hands up in the air in exhaustion.