Technology Glossary

Neuropsychiatric Adverse Event

An unwanted medical event during treatment that affects neurological functions, mental state, behaviour, or a combination of them. Examples can include confusion, impaired coordination, speech disturbance, hallucinations, or major mood changes. Its occurrence during a trial does not by itself prove that the study drug caused it; investigators compare timing, dose, alternative explanations, and rates between treatment groups.

Neutrino Telescope

A large detector that reconstructs the energy and direction of neutrinos from secondary particles and light produced in rare interactions. It observes the sky through neutrinos rather than electromagnetic radiation.

News Bargaining Code

A legal framework intended to make large digital platforms negotiate commercial payments or other terms with eligible news publishers.

Nickel Isotope Signature

The measured pattern of relative abundances among nickel isotopes in a sample. Differences in this pattern can serve as a geochemical tracer of a material's source, formation history, chemical processing, or mixing with other materials.

Nitrogen Reduction Reaction(NRR)

The chemical or electrochemical conversion of molecular nitrogen into reduced nitrogen compounds, most notably ammonia. It requires overcoming the strong triple bond in nitrogen and suppressing competing reactions such as hydrogen production.

NLR Receptor

A family of intracellular immune receptors that detect pathogen molecules and trigger defense responses.

Non-Consensual Intimate Deepfake(NCII deepfake)

Synthetic or manipulated intimate imagery that depicts an identifiable person without that person's consent. It may be produced with generative AI or editing tools and can cause severe privacy, safety, reputational, and psychological harm regardless of whether the depicted event occurred.

Non-Inferiority Trial

A clinical trial designed to test whether a new treatment is not unacceptably worse than an established comparator by more than a predefined margin.

Non-Iridescent Structural Color

Structural colour designed to remain relatively stable as the viewing or illumination angle changes. It can arise from disordered structures or from resonances of individual particles, avoiding the strong angle-dependent colour shifts of periodic photonic structures.

Non-Personalized Feed

A content feed that is not ranked primarily from an individual user’s behavioural profile, interests or engagement history, and instead relies on broader signals such as chronology, location or general popularity.

Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep(NREM)

The part of sleep without the rapid eye movements characteristic of REM sleep. Its deeper stages feature slower, more synchronized cortical activity, reduced muscle activity and changes in breathing and responsiveness.

Nonsense Mutation

A genetic change that converts an amino-acid codon into a premature stop codon, causing protein production to end too early.

Nonvolatile Photonic Memory

An optical or optoelectronic memory that retains its stored state without continuous power and represents or accesses information using light. Implementations may use phase-change materials or other persistent optical states for computing and communications.

Nuclear Plant Lifetime Extension

A programme that allows a nuclear plant to operate beyond its originally planned life through renewed licensing, safety assessment, refurbishment and replacement of aging equipment. It preserves existing generation rather than constructing a new reactor.

Nuclear Plant Uprate

An engineered increase in the maximum electrical output of an existing nuclear power plant. Uprates may come from more efficient turbines, improved equipment or approved changes to reactor operation, and require technical and regulatory review.

Nuclear Recoil

The motion of an atomic nucleus after momentum is transferred to it by a collision. Dark-matter detectors look for the light, charge or heat produced when a possible dark-matter particle causes such a recoil.

Obfuscation Network

A relay infrastructure designed to conceal the true origin, route, or ownership of network activity by passing traffic through multiple devices, proxies, or services.

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea(OSA)

A sleep disorder in which the upper airway repeatedly narrows or closes, interrupting breathing and sleep. Common signs include loud snoring, witnessed breathing pauses and excessive daytime sleepiness, but diagnosis normally requires clinical assessment and often a sleep study.

Ocean Circulation Monitoring

The sustained measurement of ocean currents and the movement of heat, salt, carbon, and water through the seas. It uses instruments such as floats, moorings, ships, satellites, and autonomous vehicles to study climate, weather, ecosystems, and sea-level change.

Oceanic Carbon Dioxide Removal

A carbon-removal approach that extracts dissolved inorganic carbon from seawater, often allowing the treated water to absorb additional atmospheric carbon dioxide before it is returned.

Off-Nuclear Black Hole

A massive black hole located away from the central nucleus of its host galaxy.

Olfactometer

A laboratory instrument that presents controlled odor sources and measures how an animal moves toward, away from or between them.

Olivine

A magnesium- and iron-rich silicate mineral common in volcanic and mantle rocks. Olivine reacts readily with water, so its preservation or alteration can reveal how much water a rock encountered and what chemical conditions prevailed.

On-Orbit Data Processing

The analysis, filtering, compression, or transformation of data aboard a satellite or spacecraft while it is in orbit. Processing data before transmission can reduce bandwidth use and shorten the time needed to deliver useful results to Earth.

On-to-Off Current Ratio

The ratio between a transistor's current when fully on and its leakage current when off. A high ratio helps circuits distinguish logic states while limiting unwanted power loss.

Open-Label Extension(OLE)

A follow-up phase in which eligible participants from a controlled trial knowingly receive the investigational treatment, often for months or years. It can provide longer-term safety and durability data, but the lack of blinding and a concurrent placebo group makes efficacy comparisons less reliable than in the randomized phase.

Open-Weight Model

An AI model whose trained numerical parameters, or weights, are made available for others to download and run. Open weights do not necessarily mean that the training data, source code, or full development process is publicly disclosed or unrestricted.

Technology glossary