On 19/05/15 08:50, GMM wrote:
On 18/05/2015 23:47, Tim Watts wrote:

"sulfur" is the new official english scientific spelling since a decade
or two ago - apparently.


I'm not sure such merkanisms are official, but more likely the fault of
MS Word.


It does seem to be according to the International Union of Pure and
Applied Chemistry (IUPAC):

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebit...uelsrev5.shtml

https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contac...ications/16238

I suspect the BBC and Oxford are going with the "official" spelling.

I find that opening a document set to use US English
spell/grammar checking will re-set the default in Word, which then sees
UK-specific terms as wrong in all documents. I'm sure many people never
change their language settings from new either.
Many people use the full-fat version of autocorrect and therefore wind
up with the wrong thing without even knowing it. Others may be less
confident about their knowledge and when Word makes a suggestion they
believe it to be right and so accept it.
It doesn't help that the MS checkers seem to have been written by
someone with only a rudimentary grasp of English, of any flavour.
The only[1] solution is to turn off all autocorrects and take
responibility for your own errors. Apart from mine, of course, for
which I blame the keyboard....

[1] The other solution would be to teach English in school, ideally
primary school, but the standard of undergraduate (il)literacy indicates
that has been abandoned.