Technology glossary

Multi-Tenant Architecture

A system design that lets several organizations or user groups share the same computing infrastructure while keeping workloads, data and access controls logically separated. It can improve utilization but requires strong scheduling, isolation and security.

Multi-Turn Evaluation

A test of an AI system across a sequence of connected messages rather than one isolated prompt. It measures whether the model keeps facts, constraints and safety advice consistent when the user adds context, disagrees or applies pressure.

Multi-Turn Jailbreak

A multi-turn jailbreak is an adversarial conversation that attempts to bypass an AI system's safety rules gradually across several exchanges. Instead of presenting one explicit harmful request, the attacker divides the objective into smaller steps, adapts to refusals, and uses prior context to make later requests appear acceptable.

Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria(MDR)

Bacteria resistant to multiple classes of antimicrobial drugs.

Multielectrode Array(MEA)

A multielectrode array is a set of small electrodes arranged to record electrical activity at several locations in neural tissue or a cell culture. Suitable systems can also deliver controlled electrical stimulation. Researchers use these arrays to study how networks respond to inputs and to connect living cells with external electronics. Electrode density and placement affect which activity can be observed; a recording does not by itself show what a network understands or whether it has learned.

Multimaterial 3D Printing

An additive-manufacturing process that deposits two or more materials with different properties in one fabricated object, such as transparent, colored, rigid or flexible regions.

Multimodal Machine Learning

A machine-learning approach that combines different kinds of input, such as text, images, video, sound or sensor measurements. The model attempts to learn relationships that would be unavailable from any one source alone.

Multimodal Remote Sensing

The combined analysis of observations collected by different sensor types, such as cameras, radar, thermal instruments or particle detectors.

Multimodal Transformer

A transformer-based model that integrates representations from more than one kind of input, such as text, audio and video, so that relationships within and across modalities can inform a prediction.

Multipath Interference

Multipath interference occurs when a navigation signal reaches a receiver by more than one path after reflecting from buildings, terrain or other surfaces. The delayed copies can distort distance measurements and reduce positioning accuracy.

Muon

A muon is an elementary particle with the same electric charge as an electron but about 207 times its mass. Muons are unstable, yet high-energy muons can pass through metres of rock, concrete or metal before decaying, which makes them useful for imaging the inside of dense structures.

Muon Radiography

Muon radiography, also called muography, forms an image by measuring how a target absorbs or deflects muons. Dense regions allow fewer muons through or scatter them more strongly, so detectors can reconstruct internal differences without cutting open the object.

Mutational Signature

A characteristic pattern of DNA mutations associated with a particular biological process or exposure.

National Secret

Non-public information that a country’s law treats as capable of harming national security if disclosed. The definition is jurisdiction-specific and can include military material as well as qualifying economic, scientific or technological information, but commercial value alone does not automatically make information a national secret.

Navier-Stokes Equations

A set of differential equations that express conservation of momentum and mass in fluids. They connect velocity, pressure, density, viscosity and external forces to describe how liquids and gases move.

Navigation Message

A GNSS navigation message is data broadcast by a satellite alongside its ranging signal. It carries information such as satellite orbit, clock corrections, system status and time that receivers need to compute a position.

Navigation Satellite

A navigation satellite broadcasts precisely timed radio signals and orbital information that receivers use to calculate position, velocity and time. Global systems deploy many such satellites as coordinated constellations.

Neoantigen

A protein fragment produced by a tumor-specific mutation and displayed on a cancer cell's surface in a form the immune system may recognize as foreign. Neoantigens are potential targets for personalized vaccines and T-cell therapies, but not every predicted neoantigen triggers an effective response.

Nerve Fascicle

A bundle of nerve fibers grouped together inside a larger peripheral nerve and surrounded by connective tissue. Different fascicles can carry signals linked to different organs or functions, making their location important for selective stimulation.

Net-Negative Emissions

A condition in which human activities remove more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they release over a given period. Sustaining net-negative carbon dioxide emissions could gradually reduce CO2-driven warming after net zero.

Network Egress Control

Policies and technical filters that restrict which external destinations, protocols and data a system may send over a network.

Network Time Synchronization

Network time synchronization aligns clocks across communications and computing systems so events can be coordinated and timestamped consistently. Telecommunications networks often use GNSS-derived timing alongside network protocols and local clocks.

Neural Circuit

A connected group of neurons that processes information and contributes to a function, behaviour or physiological response.

Neural correlate of consciousness(NCC)

A measurable pattern or mechanism in the nervous system that is consistently associated with a particular conscious experience. Association alone does not establish that the neural activity causes consciousness.

Neural Decoder

A neural decoder is a computational model that maps recorded nervous-system activity to an intended action or message. It may classify a small set of gestures, select letters, reconstruct speech features or control a device. Its accuracy depends on the sensors, training data, task design and stability of the recorded signals, so performance in a laboratory does not automatically transfer to unrestricted daily use.

Neural Decoding

The use of mathematical or computational models to infer information, intentions, perceptions, or movements from patterns of nervous-system activity. Accuracy depends on the recording method, training data, task, and stability of neural signals over time.

Neural Graft

Neural cells or tissue transplanted into a nervous system to study development, replace damaged cells, model disease or test potential treatments.

Neural Interface

A connection between electronic hardware and the nervous system that records neural activity, delivers stimulation or performs both functions.

Neuromodulation

The alteration of nerve activity through electrical, magnetic, chemical or other targeted stimulation.

Neuropixels probe

A thin silicon electrode array with many recording sites that can monitor electrical activity from large populations of neurons simultaneously across one or more brain regions.