Titillating Titles and Serious Subtitles

I don't mind what the opposition say of me so long as they don't tell the truth about me. But when they descend to telling the truth about me I consider that this is taking an unfair advantage. – Mark Twain, Speech, 1879

“Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship From Truman to Obama,” by Dennis Ross

Not yet having read this book, I intend to do so … largely because of BOTH the thought provoking title and its informative subtitle.

And here’s my thought provoking contribution … Why not employ the same strategy when naming a scientific contribution?

“Well!” one might reply, “That would trivialize serious research.”  I disagree.  The quest for peace in the Middle East is not trivial. And the use of eye catching, seemingly trivial titles, is an effective tool in advancing that endeavor.

The same reasoning can be applied to academic research.  Case in point … The Tales That Rust Can Tell.

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The Tales That Rust Can Tell: The Use of Corrosion Product Analyses In Corrosion Failure Investigations
Michael G. Burns (Stress Engineering Services)
Society of Petroleum Engineers
SPE International Oilfield Corrosion Conference and Exhibition, 9-10 May, Aberdeen, Scotland
Abstract
Premature corrosion failures are often due to unanticipated environmental conditions. Identifying those conditions after the fact can be a challenge. However, since each specific chemical compound in a corrosion deposit is formed in a specific range of thermodynamic conditions, an analysis of the corrosion deposit can often help determine the cause of the corrosion. This paper will describe the conditions under which various corrosion products of iron are formed, provide some case histories where a corrosion product analysis proved helpful, and discuss the limitations of this technique.
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