Glossary
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Prokaryote | A single-celled organism without a nucleus, such as bacteria and archaea. Science General |
| Prompt | The input or instruction given to a generative AI model. Artificial Intelligence |
| Prompt engineering | Crafting and refining prompts to get more accurate or useful outputs from AI models. Artificial Intelligence |
| Prompt Injection | An attack in which hidden instructions in a document, web page or message cause an AI system to ignore its intended instructions. Artificial Intelligence |
| Proof | A scientific proof generally refers to a high-level accumulation of evidence, experiments, and observations supporting a theory. It does not signify absolute 100% certainty. Antiscience |
| Proof by verbosity | Presenting an argument so long and complex that no one can practically check it, in the hope that it will be accepted by default. Science Literacy |
| Proportionality Bias | The cognitive tendency to assume that major, impactful events must have equally major or complex causes. Also known as the "major event/major cause heuristic," it stems from our psychological discomfort with mundane or accidental explanations for catastrophic, world-changing events. Antiscience |
| Protein | Proteins are fundamental components of all living cells. Proteins are made up of one or more chains of amino acids, which are folded into a specific three-dimensional shape. They exhibit an enormous amount of chemical and structural diversity, enabling them to carry out an extraordinarily diverse range of biological functions. Proteins help us digest our food, fight infections, control body chemistry and in general, keep our bodies functioning smoothly. Genetics |
| Protein subunit vaccine | A vaccine containing purified pieces of a pathogen, usually proteins, rather than the whole organism. Examples include the hepatitis B, HPV, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines |
| Proton | A positively charged particle in an atom's nucleus. The number of protons determines the element. Science General |