TARDIS - TARDigrades In Space

Yesterday’s TARDIS post was preamble for another TARDIS: Tardigrades in Space. This TARDIS is science rather than science fiction and you can read about it at the Tardigrades In Space blog.

Tardigrades In Space or “TARDIS” is the first research project to evaluate the ability of tardigrades to survive under open space conditions. TARDIS is one of the projects within the Biopan-6 research platform provided by European Space Agency (ESA), and will be sent into space with the russian FOTON-M3 mission.

Apparently, Tardigrades (a.k.a. “waterbears” or "moss piglets") can survive the vacuum and cosmic radiation of space.

h/t: This one is a submission from reader vardis.

ADAN - prediction of protein-protein interAction of moDular domAiNs

The ADAN Database - prediction of protein-protein interAction of moDular domAiNs - breaks the rules, really, as it is not technically an acronym. To be honest, I am not really sure what it is but it seemed so contrived that it warranted an ORCA entry. To add to the confusion, I do not know what “Adan” (the word rather than the database) is nor its relevance to protein-protein interactions, which is one of my own research areas.

As the database seems to be hosted by Universidad Miguel Hernández in Spain, the only thing I can think is that it is a backronym homage to Spanish footballer, Antonio Adán!

h/t: Nico.

CREATE - Coalition for Research into the Evolution of Australian Terrestrial Ecosystems

CREATE - the Coalition for Research into the Evolution of Australian Terrestrial Ecosystems is a foundation run by my faculty (Science) at the University of New South Wales:

The CREATE fund has been established to provide a focus for studies into the evolution of Australia’s Ecosystems, concentrating on the last 100 million years.

The main emphasis is on the lessons that can be learned from the past and how these can provide an understanding of the present and the key to our future.

I think that CREATE counts as ad hoc but given that the products of their research constitute a stream of explanatory problems for Creationists, perhaps it is an ironic backronym!

COLBERT - Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill

COLBERT - the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill - is the device used by astronauts on the International Space Station to keep fit. The NASA treadmill was originally called the T-2 but was renamed:

NASA selected the treadmill’s name after comedian and host Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” took interest during the Node 3 naming census and urged his followers to post the name “Colbert,” which received the most entries.

The acronym was engineered to fit the initials in a kind of inverse post hoc fashion (where the relevance of the acronym is added after its construction). In fact, COLBERT represents a new class of acronym to ORCA: the "Backcronym". (It was the Backcronym wikipedia page where I came across COLBERT, in fact.)