I'm not sure if the US-based authors of this paper are aware of the place "smegma" occupies in UK English...

"Immune response and prophylactic efficacy of smegmosomes in a hamster model of leptospirosis"

LOL same word in spanish and EWWWWWW

Yes, unfortunately I think they are...

Smegmosomes -> Mycobacterium smegmatis -> well, you know what'n'where
.

They normally are... that is why they use all these fancy words, so everyone as a common ground for naming things. So an headache becomes a cephalea, a shortsighted person, a myopic, etc, etc, etc.... most of these terms come from the latin or the greek and are easily recognizable - if you understand their meaning, that is.

You'd think so, but there was also a paper in Nature I think it was, where they abbreviated Copper Nanotubes to....well, take a guess

Oh, that really stands for Copper Nanotubes? Oh, my..... I really don't understand why people get some offended when they are called a copper nanotube. Why would you want to call copper nanotube to anyone, anyway.

It means the same in American English...but maybe since the routine there is to snip off the part of the body that smegma lies behind, people aren't as aware of the word?

Ouch.
*strokes foreskin lovingly*
Ahem...

I wasn't sure to be honest, I remember seeing a US show with the Red Dwarf cast taking questions from the audience and someone innocently asked the meaning of "smeg".

Smeg is definitely worldwide...
.

Oo, nice find.

'head cheese'

Fondue, anyone??
.

From what I heard, it isn't sexist either.

Watch out, you might put some people off their Raclette

Oh gawd - real cross-culture
.