Redeem now We never knew science could be so witty, creative, and in some cases blunt and even kind of rude. A Quora user recently asked "What are some of the best scientific acronyms?" and brilliant answers started pouring in.He kicked off the thread with:BRAINS: Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists. Obviously these award-winning scientists are brainy.WEIRD: This one stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. Quora user Leo Horie said this is from a behavioral psychology study that pointed out that "It's a shocking fact, but pretty much everything we think we know about human behaviour derives from studies of US undergraduates - the psychologists' 'lab rat'! These people are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) in more ways than one."SPRM: Selective progesterone receptor modulators. Quora user Sebastien Chartrand said this one is used to treat uterine conditions. CLARITY: Clear Lipid-exchanged Anatomically Rigid Imaging Tissue hYdrogel. This one comes from user Chetan Raj.INADEQUATE: Incredible Natural Abundance DoublE QUAntum Transfer Experiment. Quora user Lars Elgaard said the name is perfect because the test is not very reliable. HERP: Human Exposure Rodent Potency, and DERP: Drug Effectiveness Review Project. Quora user Josh Velson said these acronyms cracked him up when they were used in a problem set he had to solve in school.Quora user Anson Lam gave some great astronomy acronyms:FLAMINGOS: FLoridA Multi-object Imaging Near-infrared Grism Observational SpectrometerBIGASS: Bright Infrared Galaxy All Sky Survey WISEASS: Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy SystemGANDALF: Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting algorithmAnd Quora user Giridhar Sekar pointed the way to a whole list of NMR spectroscopy acronyms. Here are some of the gems:FLOPSY: FLip-flOP SpectroscopY DOUBTFUL: Double Quantum Transitions for Finding Unresolved LinesHOHAHA: HOmonuclear HArtmann-HAhn spectroscopySECSY: Spin Echo Correlated SpectroscopySee more acronyms on Quora > .content-lock-lock .hidden { display: none; } Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications .inline-newsletter-signup.loading { width: 100%; max-width: 640px; margin: 0 auto; visibility: hidden; }