"Holy grail" is "the mother of all bad science clichés, the worst offender," according to wired.com, which reports that Nature has banned the phrase. These cliché police found 2.6 million Google hits for the overused phrase in articles related to disciplines such as physics, climate change, cancer research, and plant biology. They also abhor the use of "silver bullet"—and "magic bullets" as well. "Shedding light" is also high on their hit list, as is "missing link." And last but not least is “paradigm shift," which Google finds 1.9 million times. What can we add to this list? See www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/blackholescience.
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