Technology glossary

Bioisostere

A chemical group that can replace another while preserving similar biological effects and altering useful properties.

Biological Age

An estimate of how closely a person's cells, organs, or molecular measurements resemble typical patterns at a given chronological age. It is a research construct derived from biomarkers and models, not a single universally accepted measurement or a prediction of an individual's remaining lifespan.

Biorefinery

A facility that converts biomass into fuels, energy, chemicals, and materials through integrated biological, chemical, or thermal processes. Like a petroleum refinery, it aims to obtain multiple useful products from a feedstock, but uses renewable biological resources.

Bipedal Locomotion

Movement using two legs for support and propulsion. In robotics, it requires continuous control of foot placement, joint forces and body momentum while alternating between single-foot support and phases when neither foot may touch the ground.

Black Hole Merger

The process in which two black holes spiral together and combine into one larger black hole.

Blood Eosinophil Count

A measurement of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, in a blood sample. In airway disease it can act as a biomarker of one inflammatory pattern and may help predict response to some biologic medicines.

Boltzmann Limit

The room-temperature lower bound near 60 millivolts per decade on the subthreshold swing of a conventional thermionic MOS transistor. Devices using other switching mechanisms may operate below this boundary.

Botnet

A group of compromised computers, routers, or other connected devices controlled together through malicious software to send traffic, spread malware, perform attacks, or relay other activity.

Brain-Computer Interface(BCI)

A system that measures brain activity and translates it into commands for a computer or external device, or delivers information back to the nervous system. BCIs may be noninvasive or implanted and are studied for communication, movement assistance, rehabilitation, and research.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

A protein best known for supporting nerve cell growth in the brain, which some tumors hijack as a chemical signal to attract nerves into the tumor.

Breakdown Voltage

The voltage at which an insulating region or semiconductor device can no longer block current safely and begins conducting uncontrollably or suffering damage.

Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies(bNAbs)

Antibodies able to block many different strains of a virus rather than just one, by targeting parts of the virus that vary little between strains.

Browser Agent

An AI agent that can interpret webpages and perform actions in a browser on behalf of a user.

Camera-Only Autonomy

An automated-driving approach that relies on camera imagery as its primary environmental sensor rather than combining it with lidar or radar.

Capillary Force

A force produced by surface tension where a liquid meets a solid, especially inside narrow gaps. It can pull liquid into small spaces and, in nanofabrication, can also move flexible structures as a solvent evaporates.

Carbon-Composite Structure

A structural component made from carbon fibers embedded in a binding material such as polymer resin. It can provide high strength and stiffness at a lower weight than many metals, although its performance depends on fiber orientation and manufacturing quality.

Carbonaceous Chondrite

A primitive, carbon-rich type of stony meteorite that formed from early Solar System material and has undergone relatively little melting. Some contain water-bearing minerals and organic compounds, making them valuable for studying planetary formation and the ingredients of early Earth.

Carbonized Manuscript

A handwritten document whose organic material has been transformed by intense heat into fragile carbon-rich matter. Carbonization can preserve the overall form and sometimes the ink or internal structure, but physical handling may cause irreversible damage.

Carcinogen

A substance or exposure capable of increasing the risk of cancer by damaging cells or altering biological processes.

Carrier-Phase Positioning

Carrier-phase positioning measures the phase of a GNSS radio carrier rather than relying only on its coded ranging signal. Resolving the number of carrier cycles enables much finer distance measurements and underpins centimetre-level techniques such as RTK.

Catastrophic Forgetting

A failure mode in machine learning in which training a model on new information substantially degrades knowledge or skills learned earlier. It is especially common in sequential or continual learning when new updates overwrite parameters important to previous tasks.

Cavity Magnonics

A research field that studies interactions between collective magnetic excitations and microwave photons confined inside resonant cavities.

CCR5(CCR5)

A protein on the surface of certain immune cells that HIV uses as a co-receptor to enter and infect them. Blocking CCR5 can prevent the virus from entering new cells.

Cell-Free Protein Expression

A method that uses extracted molecular machinery, including ribosomes and enzymes, to manufacture proteins without maintaining living cells. It gives researchers direct control over reaction ingredients and is useful for rapid prototyping and biochemical screening.

Cellular Agriculture

The production of biological materials using cultured cells rather than raising or harvesting whole organisms.

Central Memory T Cell(TCM)

A long-lived T cell that circulates through lymphoid tissues and can multiply rapidly and produce effector cells when it encounters a familiar antigen again.

Chart Manipulation

An attempt to distort a music ranking through ineligible, artificial or coordinated sales and streams instead of genuine audience activity.

Chirality

A property of an object or molecule whose mirror image cannot be placed exactly on top of it, like left and right hands. In materials and robotics, chirality can determine the direction of twisting or rotation.

Circularization Burn

An engine firing used to change an elliptical orbit into a more circular one. The burn usually raises the low point of the orbit, helping a spacecraft remain safely above the atmosphere or reach the path required for payload deployment.

Circulating Tumor DNA(ctDNA)

Small fragments of DNA released by tumor cells into the bloodstream. Tests can use them to detect molecular signs of cancer, monitor treatment or estimate recurrence risk.