山中伸弥先生の半生記 "Discovering iPS Cells" を読んでいます。They Don't Believe Me! の章から引用します。 iPSの命名についての個所です。
I gave the name "induced pluripotent stem cells" to these new cells with proliferative capability and pluripotency similar to that of ES cells; iPS cells for short. I lowercased the first letter in a nod to the iPod, the portable digital music player that was very popular at the time. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to remember the name, given my bitter experience with other genes that I had discovered and named (NAT1 and ECAT4), but whose names were no longer used.
"in a nod to the iPod" の箇所ですが、"nod" を辞書で見ると次の説明があります。
・Oxford English Dictionary: a (passing) nod to something: something that you do or say to acknowledge the importance or influence of: The house is white, in a passing nod to Greek tradition.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to move the head down and then up again quickly, esp. to show agreement, approval, or greeting: The teacher nodded (his head) in agreement.
山中先生はiPodの愛好者でiPodに敬意を示す意味で "induced pluripotent stem cells" の通称を "iPS" としたのでしょうね。米国滞在中にプリゼンテーションについても勉強したと書かれていたのでその成果を発揮している証拠ですね。
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