Glossary
Partial-word, boolean (AND, OR, NOT) and "exact phrase" searches are supported.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Theory of relativity | Albert Einstein's theories describing how space and time are linked and how gravity results from the curvature of spacetime. Science General |
| Thermal expansion | The increase in volume of seawater as it warms. It is one of the two main causes of sea-level rise, along with melting land ice. Climate Change |
| Thermodynamics | The branch of physics dealing with heat, energy, and work, and how they relate. Science General |
| Thermohaline Circulation | Large-scale density-driven circulation in the ocean, caused by differences in temperature and salinity. In the North Atlantic the thermohaline circulation consists of warm surface water flowing northward and cold deep water flowing southward, resulting in a net poleward transport of heat. Climate Change |
| Thimerosal | Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound that has been used since the 1930s as a preservative in vaccines and other medical products. It is added to vials of vaccine that contain more than one dose (multi-dose vials) to prevent growth of germs, like bacteria and fungi. Vaccines |
| Think tank | A research and advocacy organization that produces policy analysis. Some are independent, while others promote the views of their funders and have been used to spread doubt about science. Science Literacy |
| Third-Person Effect | A psychological phenomenon where individuals believe scientific misinformation heavily manipulates others but has little to no effect on themselves. Science Misinformation |
| Tipping Point | A threshold beyond which a part of the climate system shifts to a new state, often abruptly and irreversibly, such as ice-sheet collapse or Amazon dieback. Climate Change |
| Tobacco Strategy | The playbook pioneered by the tobacco industry to delay regulation by funding contrarian research, amplifying uncertainty and attacking scientists. Later adapted to climate change and other issues. Antiscience |
| Token | A token is the unit that a language model processes. While all data, including images and audio, are also broken down into tokens, the concept is simplest to grasp with text, where a token is typically a word fragment (though it can be whole words, punctuation marks, and other things too). Artificial Intelligence |