---
title: "Scientific terminology"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_terminology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:27:36.701353+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

A good example is the word laser, 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).

== See also ==

== References ==

== External links ==
Science Terminology – Acronyms & Abbreviations [link appears broken (2017-04-23)]
List of Common Acronyms and Abbreviations Encountered in the CERN Environment
Abbreviations.com – a human edited database of acronyms and abbreviations
Acronym Finder – a human edited database of acronyms and abbreviations (over 550,000 entries)
All Acronyms – collection of acronyms and abbreviations (more than 600,000 definitions)
Acronym Database – a human edited database of user submitted acronyms and abbreviations
WDISF – What Does It Stand For is a human edited database of acronyms