Glossary
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Turing test | A test proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 in which a machine is judged intelligent if a person cannot reliably tell its conversation apart from a human's. Artificial Intelligence |
| Type 1 Error | Occurs when you reject the null hypothesis, but it was actually true. If you perform the t-test and set p < 0.05, there is less than a 5% chance you could make a Type I error by rejecting the hypothesis based on random fluctuations in the data. Science General |
| Type 2 Error | Occurs when you accept the null hypothesis, but it was actually false. The experimental conditions had an effect, but the researcher failed to find it statistically significant. Science General |
| Typhoid vaccine | A vaccine that protects against typhoid fever, a serious bacterial infection spread through contaminated food and water. It is recommended for travelers to areas where typhoid is common. Vaccines |
| Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) | The energy range just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum. Although ultraviolet radiation constitutes only about 5 percent of the total energy emitted from the sun, it is the major energy source for the stratosphere and mesosphere, playing a dominant role in both energy balance and chemical composition. Climate Change |
| UN Framework Convention on Climate Change | The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty adopted in 1992 that provides the framework for global climate negotiations, including the annual Conference of the Parties. Climate Change |
| Uncertainty | A quantifiable measurement that tells us how well a specific value or result is known, acknowledging that no measurement or scientific observation can be completely exact. Science General |
| Uncertainty monster | A metaphor, introduced by Jeroen van der Sluijs, for the confusion that scientific uncertainty creates in policy debates. Uncertainty is sometimes exploited to argue for inaction, even though greater uncertainty can also mean outcomes are worse than expected. Science Literacy |
| Underfitting | When a model is too simple to capture the patterns in its data, so it performs poorly even on training data. Artificial Intelligence |
| Unfalsifiable claim | A claim that cannot be tested or disproven by any possible evidence. Such claims fall outside science. Science Literacy |