Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Climate Model | A quantitative way of representing the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. Models can range from relatively simple to quite comprehensive. Climate Change Denial |
| Cognitive Dissonance | The psychological discomfort you feel when holding contradictory beliefs, or when your actions clash with your personal values. The brain dislikes this inconsistency and triggers a mental tension that forces you to either change your behavior, justify your actions, or alter your beliefs to restore harmony. Antiscience |
| Communicable | That which can be transmitted from one person or animal to another, infectious. Vaccines |
| Computer Simulation | An imitation of a real-life system, simplified and designed on a computer. See also "Scientific model". Science General |
| Conjecture | An educated guess, opinion, or theory formed without sufficient evidence or proof. They arise from uncontrolled observations and preliminary supporting evidence which is often incomplete. Predictions are overly general making them difficult to falsify. Science |
| Conjugate Vaccine | A vaccine in which two compounds (usually a protein and polysaccharide) are joined to each other to increase the vaccine's effectiveness. Vaccines |
| Conspiracy Theory | Beliefs that scientific findings are fabricated or manipulated by powerful, corrupt actors (e.g., vaccine conspiracies). Science General |
| Context length | Context window is how much history or text an AI model can process at once. More technically, it's the maximum number of tokens an LLM can consider in one request. Artificial Intelligence |
| Contraindication | A condition in a recipient that increases their risk for a serious adverse reaction. Vaccines |
| Control Group | One of the tested groups in a scientific experiment, which is not exposed to any experimental treatment but is tested under the same conditions as all other groups. This helps the scientists confirm that the experimental treatment actually makes a difference. It also provides a baseline to compare the results of the experiment against. Every good scientific study must have a control group if it wants to reach valid results. That is how the scientists confirm that their findings are not just a coincidence. Science General |