--- title: "Even Professional Scientists Think the Journal PNAS Has a Hilarious Name" description: "Academic Twitter has exploded with PNAS jokes after the hilariously-abbreviated journal published a nuclear economics take." date: "2022-10-06" modified: "2022-10-06" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/professional-scientists-pnas-jokes" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "economics" - "penis" - "social science" - "the digest" --- # Even Professional Scientists Think the Journal PNAS Has a Hilarious Name ![Academic Twitter has exploded with PNAS jokes after the hilariously-abbreviated journal published a nuclear economics take.]() *Red background, hand held eggplant \Image: Getty\* ## Hardly Joking Academic Twitter has exploded with *PNAS* jokes after the hilariously-abbreviated journal published a nuclear economics take. "When I got a paper in that journal, my husband kept referring to it as my 'penis paper,'" Western University relationship sociologist Samantha Joel [tweeted](). "It's important to surround yourself with people who keep you grounded." The hubbub began this week when the prestigious *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* journal — better known by its much-more-fun abbreviation, *PNAS* — [published an economics paper]() which, as many academics argue, seems to demonstrate how little economists appear to know about the other social sciences. Titled "The scientific value of numerical measures of human feelings," this *PNAS* paper is meant to endorse numerically-based psychological and attitude surveys, the type of which many social and psychological studies are based on that ask one to measure on a numerical scale, a la the [Big Five Personality Test](), how they feel about things. ## No Duh As many researchers have pointed out, however, the *PNAS* study isn't saying anything new. Psychometric surveys have long been considered a valuable data source in many other social sciences. "This week’s edition of *PNAS*: economists discover the social sciences," [wrote]() University Medical Center Utrecht medical statistician and epidemiologist Maarten van Smeden. "Next week: geologists reveal functioning heart, brain and lungs are essential for human life." As Arizona State University associate psychology professor [Federico Sanabria joked on Twitter](), it appears that "*PNAS* \[is just\] discovering century-old psychometrics." In a [tweet thread](), Duke sociology professor Kieran Healy echoed similar sentiments. "A real classic of the genre here," the professor wrote, adding that the paper's "entire framing is almost comical." ## Dick Trending So loud was the Academic Twitter brouhaha that, at one point, [*PNAS* began trending]() — and that's when the dick jokes really began rolling in. Epidemiologist Ashley Holub may have put it best in her own missive to the hilariously abbreviated journal. "I'm an adult," [she tweeted](), "but I swear to God *PNAS* is never not funny." Given the disparity between the journal's ho-hum title and its hilarious abbreviation, we can't say we disagree. **More nerd jokes:** [*Asking the Public to Name Probe to Uranus May Have Been a Mistake*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()