My Favourite Ridiculous NMR Acronyms

Perhaps it was inevitable that I would end up writing a blog about the silly side of science. After all, I did write my thesis on NMR spectroscopy. And as I am about to show you, NMR people can get very, very silly when they’re coming up with acronyms for their pulse sequences. The following are just ten examples of funny NMR acronyms that I’m particularly fond of.

WURST

WURST is technically a pulse that is incorporated into various sequences, but this is really all about the silly acronyms. WURST stands for Wideband Uniform Rate Smooth Truncation, which does quite nicely describe the nature of the pulse. But what I love about this one is that the authors of the original paper don’t dance around. They are completely honest about the fact that they chose that particular name because the pulse itself is shaped like a sausage.

EASYGOING-DUMBO

DUMBO in and of itself is a pretty amusing one, standing for Decoupling Using Mind Boggling Optimization. But the EASYGOING just takes the whole thing to a new level. That part stands for Evolving Algorithm Serving Your Global Optimization Needs Gladly. When you have the word gladly in your pulse sequence name, it gets a bit obvious that you just really wanted your acronym to be a particular word. This one is definitely one of those “Strategic Homeland Intervention and Logistics Division because someone really wanted our initials to spell SHIELD” situations.

INADEQUATE

I’m not sure what exactly the logic behind naming the Incredible Natural Abundance Double Quantum Transfer Experiment was. But it proved rather appropriate given that this particular pulse sequence really doesn’t cut it when you’re trying to get information about carbon in a timely manner. It’s used to get information about carbon via the attached hydrogen, which these days is generally done by other sequences in a much shorter time. This sequence is, for lack of a better term… inadequate.

ENDOR

Electron Nuclear Double Resonance was clearly invented by someone who is an Ewok fan (or at least I hope it was!). Which I happen to heartily approve of. If I’d ever created a pulse sequence, I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist making the name a Star Wars reference if it was anything close to possible. Perhaps the YUB-NUB sequence…

CRAMPS

People get a lot of mileage out of this name. CRAMPS is Combined Rotational and Multiple Pulse Spectroscopy. It’s a sequence designed to get better resolution in the solid state. The theory is sound, but in practice it is not the easiest pulse sequence to actually use. It takes really fast spinning and really powerful amplifiers and generally a very specific hardware setup. This has of course led to many papers about simplifying implementation with titles like “Taking the pain out of CRAMPS”.

FLOPSY

I like this one because even what it stands for is a little whimsical. This decoupling sequence is Flip Flop Spectroscopy. Flip angles are often discussed in NMR, but flop is a case all its own.

HORROR

This is definitely one of the less obvious acronyms out there. HORROR is double quantum homonuclear rotary resonance. The letters are in there somewhere, but there is some definite stretching to get the acronym, especially the double-R. Clearly the major appeal of this particular sequence is being able to hold up the data while saying “The HORROR! The HORROR!”.

CYCLOPS

I appreciate the Cyclically Order Phase Sequence in particular because so many undergrads just gave me blank stares when I made Greek mythology jokes at a TA. Of course, it’s also possible that the person who came up with this acronym was thinking of X-Men. With the exception of WURST, the authors seldom admit to such reasoning.

MARDI-GRAS

Sometimes you just look at an acronym and just wonder where one of the letters is meant to come from.  That’s the case with Matrix Analyis of Relaxation for Distance Geometry of an Aqueous Structure. I suppose if you squint you can find the R in “Geometry”, but that’s really pushing it. I will give them that it’s a lot catchier than MARDGA though.

NOVEL

The beauty of Nuclear Orientation via Electron Spin Locking is that you get to say “I’m using a very novel pulse sequence” even decades down the line when there may well be better methods of getting the data available but this is the only one that will work on your facility’s aging hardware.

 Honorable Mention

The former name for cross polarization was a topic for another day.