An Unfortunate Name
January 12th, 2012
I mentioned in last year’s periodic table of cupcakes post that I go to a local high school about once a week to serve as a mentor for a program associated with Caltech’s NSF “Powering the Planet” center. A team of five students at the school synthesizes metal-oxide semiconductors on FTO-coated glass electrodes and screens these materials for catalytic activity in the photoelectrolysis of water. What makes the program so cool is that it’s not just a lab demo, it’s “real” research. There is a chance—albeit small—that we could happen across a great catalyst that will help solve the global energy problem.
When I started in the program, we used a scanning station assembled by a team at the University of Wyoming. They called the instrument “SHArK” for Solar Hydrogen Activity Research Kit and it had a cool shark logo and everything. Later on, one of the PIs at Caltech improved on the idea and built a second-generation scanning station that allowed for faster and more reliable screening. As with any new instrument, it came with a new name…the Solar Materials Discovery kit.
The benefits of the new kit were more-than-fair compensation for losing the cool shark mascot. At the beginning of this academic year, we discussed renaming the kit, but my suggestion of ORCA (Oxidation-Reduction Catalyst Assessment) was shot down. We ended up sticking with Solar Materials Discovery, or “SMD” for short. We have two SMD kits, SMD-1 and SMD-2, which my fellow mentors and I sign up to take to local schools for our weekly SMD activities.
So, that has been going on all year. Two days ago, I had lunch on campus with three former students who participated in the program when it was SHArK. These guys are back home from college and looking for trouble. Halfway into my meal of beef flautas, one of the students commented that the new name was weird and asked why we’d make such a ridiculous change.
“Why?” I asked.
“Ummm…because SMD stands for….ummm…suck my….”
Uh oh. I whipped out my phone to consult the Urban Dictionary, and sure enough, SMD is an accepted acronym for that vulgar phrase. And it’s not like this is an obscure, unpopular term—it has two thousand “thumbs up” votes for accuracy.
How on Earth did we all miss this? How did I—someone tuned into the worlds of technology and ribald humor—miss this?
For the past four months, I’ve been sending e-mails to sixteen-year olds asking the best time for me to come over for SMD. Caltech also has a Web site devoted to SMD, and we regularly give presentations discussing SMD and our SMD kits. I even designed that logo at the top of the post.
Ugh. Never have I felt so old…or dirty.
January 12th, 2012 at 3:19 AM
[...] Found on ChemBark. Acronyms are dangerous. [...]
January 12th, 2012 at 3:25 AM
My PhD advisor used to (and probably still does) start his discussion sessions with a “Which Topic First?” poll. This poll’s name got shortened accordingly.
January 12th, 2012 at 5:17 AM
Acronyms are useful because each can have multiple but similar meanings. For example: STFU = stop the foolish utterances. FBS = flagrantly blatant statements. LMF = lying manipulative fellow or female.
January 12th, 2012 at 5:37 AM
How did I—someone tuned into the worlds of technology and ribald humor—miss this?
The answer’s simple. We are getting old. I too wouldn’t have thought of that; let’s just face the fact that sixteen year olds are way more tuned in than us.
January 12th, 2012 at 5:44 AM
From Twitter last week: @JohnNCoupland (a FoodSci Prof at Penn State)
“**sigh** my professional organization @IFT the Institute for Food Technologists apparently means something else #IFT bit.ly/zQhv3d”
and
“Every abbreviation I use now I first type nervously into Urban Dictionary. DATEM seems safe enough. For now”
Those last two words summarize it all.
January 12th, 2012 at 8:03 AM
SMD could be part of our larger mission to develop a Solar Materials Utility Toolbox.
January 12th, 2012 at 3:47 PM
I feel old, that the first thing I thought of related to SMD is “Surface Mount Device”. As in, a chip which is soldered directly to conductive pads on a PCB (printed circuit board).
The only thing I have to add to this, is that you should never try to abbreviate “Good for you” as GFY.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:03 PM
Jeez…before this thread, I had no idea that LMF, FBS, IFT, or GFY stood for anything. My education is severely lacking.
Also, there is a grand piece of irony in the above story in that I tried very hard to come up with a suggestive acronym when we were floating candidates for new names.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:12 PM
SMH for “shaking my head” is a new-ish and clean one.
January 13th, 2012 at 2:25 AM
Getting old! (Plus: I did like ORCA better from the beginning… What better than a killer orca for eliminating a shark?)
January 14th, 2012 at 3:39 PM
I kinda figured that a product named “SHARk”, with a second-generation followup named “SMD”, was just familiar with internet memes.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-singing-shark (language NSFW)
January 16th, 2012 at 9:14 AM
Try giving a talk on Saturation Transfer Difference NMR studies to medical researchers. The snickering just goes on and on…
January 24th, 2012 at 7:18 AM
Well, I am a black-belt in the WTF (World Taekwondo Federation). And as for STD comment, the same goes for teaching undergrads how to calculate standard deviations. I was teaching one in the department instrument facility, and he just kept giggling and I was getting some of the meanest looks from the faculty/staff members down there working and servicing instruments.