Scientific Terminology - Acronyms

Acronyms

A good example is word laser. Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, and therefore all its letters should be capitalized. However, because of frequent use, this acronym became a neologism, i.e., it has integrated into English and most other languages. Consequently, laser is commonly written in small letters. It has even produced secondary acronyms such as LASIK (Laser-ASsisted in Situ Keratomileusis). A related acronym and neologism maser (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is much less known. Nevertheless, it is commonly written in small letters. On the contrary, acronym SPASER (Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is capitalized.

Many scientific acronyms or abbreviations reflect the artistic sense of their creators, e.g.,

• AMANDA – Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array, a neutrino telescope
• BLAST – Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope
• COMICS – COoled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer
• FROG - Frequency-resolved optical gating
• MARVEL – Multi-object Apache Point Observatory Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey, a NASA-funded project to search for exoplanets
• METATOY – METAmaTerial fOr raYs – a material that changes the direction of transmitted light rays
• PLANET – Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork, a program to search for microlensing events
• SCREAM – Single Crystal Reactive Etch And Metallization, a process used in making some microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
• SHRIMP – Sensitive High-Resolution Ion MicroProbe
• SIESTA – Spanish Initiative for Electronic Simulations with Thousands of Atoms (siesta = afternoon nap in Spanish)
• SPIDER – Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction
• SQUID – Superconducting Quantum Interference Device,

etc. (see also List of astronomy acronyms).