SPICE - Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering

Climate Change is upon us, whether we like/admit it or not. Whilst some are still hopeful that we can halt and reverse the trend in emissions that has us seeing CO₂ and global temperatures outside the range of all human history, others are beginning to devise and test Plan B: Geoengineering (or “Climate Engineering”) our way out of trouble.

One such project is SPICE - Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering.

The SPICE project is investigating the effectiveness of Solar Radiation Management (SRM). SRM involves offsetting the effects of greenhouse gas increases by causing the Earth to absorb less radiation from the Sun.

It should be noted that SPICE are not actually planning/promoting injecting stuff into the atmosphere - it could potentially be really bad news - but instead are “investigating the feasibility, risks and governance associated with Solar Radiation Management”. By the time that things get so bad that we need this sort of stuff - a regrettably probable future in my opinion - it will be too late to start looking into it. (That said, there is a danger that by developing the technology, we make the application more likely. It’s a tricky one!)

SPICE is not too contrived as ORCA acronyms go but then it is not too relevant to climate change/engineering either.

h/t: BBC Discovery.

USA PATRIOT - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

No list of contrived acronyms could be complete without USA PATRIOT - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

Another acronym featured on Wikipedia’s backronym page, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 is an oldie but goldie that has long been on ORCA’s radar. (As it happens, Radar is also an acronym - RAdio Detection And Ranging - and was originally RADAR but has become an everyday word, much like LASER - Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.)

The USA PATRIOT Act is famous enough to need no introduction but so contrived that it had to feature at some point. Although listed as a “backronym” by Wikipedia, under ORCA classification it is definitely a pre hoc: something contrived to fit an appropriate word. Whether its an appropriate Act is a whole other issue.

CICADA - Cochlear Implant Club and ADvisory Association

The cicadas in Sydney are loud this year. Fitting, then, that CICADA is the chosen acronym for the Cochlear Implant Club and Advisory Association.

CICADA Australia Inc. began in 1984 as a support organization in NSW to help new cochlear implantees. At the time there were only 12 implantees. Implant surgeon Prof. Bill Gibson came up with the name intending that it should stand for “Cochlear Implant Club and Deafness Association”. However none of the newly implanted people felt they were still deaf, so a compromise was reached. The title later came to stand for “Cochlear Implant Club and ADvisory Association”.

As cochlear implants make things louder (in a very crude sense) and cicadas are among the noisiest insects in the world, I think there is a definite case to be made for a post hoc connection.

BRAIN - Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies

On Friday, I had a little rant on The Cabbages of Doom that Climate Change was more worthy than brains for special funding attention. One of the brain projects that got said special funding last year (to the tune of $100m) was The BRAIN Initiative , which turns out to be a pre hoc acronym worthy of ORCA: Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. Vague technobabble at its finest!

Although the B of BRAIN itself stands for Brain, I don’t think that it count as recursive but it’s close.

CLARITY - Clear, Lipid-exchanged, Anatomically Rigid, Imaging/immunostaining compatible, Tissue hYdrogel

Another one that popped up in a journal Table of Contents (this time Science), CLARITY is the spectacularly contrived Clear, Lipid-exchanged, Anatomically Rigid, Imaging/immunostaining compatible, Tissue hYdrogel. As an acronym, it falls down at the end, so this one is being classed as an “intranym” but as CLARITY is a brain-imaging technique, I think it deserves pre hoc status. CLARITY was runner-up for Science journal’s Breakthrough of the Year.

SQUID - Superconducting QUantum Interference Device

SQUID - Superconducting QUantum Interference Device - came to my attention from a recent Nature magazine TOC featuring a News & Views piece, Quantum physics: An atomic SQUID:

“When a magnetic field needs to be measured with the utmost precision, a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is the instrument of choice.”

I’m not aware that cephalopods are particularly good at quantum physics nor precise measurements of magnetic fields, so this one is rated ad hoc.

EDGE - Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered

Joining FATE in the pantheon of conservation acronyms, EDGE stands for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered. It is the focus of the EDGE of Existence project, “saving the world’s most extraordinary species”:

“The EDGE of Existence programme is the only global conservation initiative to focus specifically on threatened species that represent a significant amount of unique evolutionary history.

Using a scientific framework to identify the world’s most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species, the EDGE of Existence programme highlights and protects some of the weirdest and most wonderful species on the planet. EDGE species have few close relatives on the tree of life and are often extremely unusual in the way they look, live and behave, as well as in their genetic make-up. They represent a unique and irreplaceable part of the world’s natural heritage, yet an alarming proportion are currently sliding silently towards extinction unnoticed.”

EDGE species are on the edge, so EDGE is clear pre hoc.

h/t: The Infinite Monkey Cage podcast