We're awarding today a much-coveted Vulture Vulgar Acronym trophy (VULVA) to China's Dachi Yang, Guowen Meng, Shuyuan Zhang, Yufeng Hao, Xiaohong An, Qing Wei, Min Yeab, and Lide Zhanga for a truly breathtaking contribution to the genre in their snappily-titled Electrochemical synthesis of metal and semimetal nanotube–nanowire heterojunctions and their electronic transport properties.

Ok, so here it is: you've got your carbon nanotubes (CNTs), your single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs), or even your multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). Then some bright spark develops copper nanotubes.

Right, now you need an acronym for those. Let's have a think... Yup, got it:

Genius. According to the supplementary information (pdf): "For CuNT-BiNW heterojunction arrays, the Au-coated AAO template was mounted on the PMMA cell, CuNTs segments were electrodeposited inside the half depth of the nanochannels under a constant current density of 2.2 mA/cm2 for 30 min at room temperature, with a graphite plate as the counter electrode."

There's more - what about bismuth nanotubes? Well, it just gets better and better: "Firstly, BiNT segments were electrodeposited inside the half depth of the nanochannels under a constant current density of 2 mA/cm2 for 30 min at room temperature."

BiNT segments? We love it. A well-deserved VULVA to the Chinese team. ®

Bootnote

Thanks very much to Philip from Cambridge for the tip-off. God preserve us all.