ad: Short for advertisement. It may appear in any medium (print, online or broadcast) and has been prepared to sell someone on a product, idea or point of view.
artificial intelligence: A type of knowledge-based decision-making exhibited by machines or computers. The term also refers to the field of study in which scientists try to create machines or computer software capable of intelligent behavior.
chatbot: A computer program created to seemingly converse with human users. Modern ones (such as Siri, Alexa, Ocelot and Sprinklr) can retrieve information over the internet about news events or classroom topics. Many even work as digital assistants to answer questions about purchases, products or scheduling on behalf of stores, pharmacies or banks.
computer science: The scientific study of the principles and use of computers. Scientists who work in this field are known as computer scientists.
context: The setting or circumstances that help explain an event, some statement or some conclusion.
exoplanet: Short for extrasolar planet, it’s a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system.
planet: A large celestial object that orbits a star but unlike a star does not generate any visible light.
psychology: (adj. psychological ) The study of the human mind, especially in relation to actions and behavior. To do this, some perform research using animals. Scientists and mental-health professionals who work in this field are known as psychologists.
psychosis: A potentially frightening symptom associated with some types of mental illness. In it, someone loses the ability to recognize what is real. Affected people may claim to see, hear or believe things that aren’t real. They may also develop strange thoughts, behaviors and feelings — such as being convinced that someone is out to get them.
schizophrenia: A serious brain disorder that can lead to hallucinations, delusions and other uncontrolled behaviors.
solar: Having to do with the sun or the radiation it emits. It comes from sol, Latin for sun.
solar system: The eight major planets and their moons in orbit around our sun, together with smaller bodies in the form of dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids and comets.
system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.
taste: One of the basic properties the body uses to sense its environment, especially foods, using receptors (taste buds) on the tongue (and some other organs).
telescope: Usually a light-collecting instrument that makes distant objects appear nearer through the use of lenses or a combination of curved mirrors and lenses. Some, however, collect radio emissions (energy from a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum) through a network of antennas.