Search exasperation

Are there secrets to the Search function of which I am unaware? Because Lord knows I can’t find what I’m looking for via Search, and am doubtless causing unnecessary board traffic.

Case in point:

I was curious about the Physics phenomenon known as the Biefield-Brown Effect.

Thinking like I would if I searched on any other site, I figured “biefield” would have to be a pretty rare word string on SDMB, and would likely only produce solid hits. I entered “biefield” into the search box, chose all forums, chose any date.

No results.

So I started a thread, only to be told that the topic had been covered numerous times. I searched for “lifter” and found many threads with posts that included the word “biefield” in them.

What should I be doing? Or is there no hope with the current search function?

My guess: you searched for “biefield” instead of “biefield*” (with a wild card. Since “Biefield-Brown” is treated as one word, your search didn’t find a match. Searching for “biefield*” brought up the Brown effect: trekkie dream or bad science? thread.