Space
This fourth planet from the sun is home to Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system.
What is Mars?
This science fiction author famously devised the "Three Laws of Robotics" in his 1942 short story Runaround.
Who was Isaac Asimov?
Often called the "brain" of the computer, this component executes instructions and processes data.
What is the CPU (Central Processing Unit)?
To stop unauthorized vehicles, these heavy-duty, retractable metal pillars are often installed at the entrances of the
White House
or high-profile corporate HQs.
What are bollards?
Consisting of protons and neutrons, this is the dense, positively charged center of an atom.
What is the nucleus?
Accounting for about 99.8% of the total mass of our solar system, this G-type main-sequence star keeps everything in orbit.
What is the Sun?
Considered the first industrial robot, this machine began working on a General Motors assembly line in 1961.
What is Unimate?
Computers use this base-2 numbering system, consisting entirely of 0s and 1s, to represent data.
What is Binary?
In the U.S. Capitol and many major corporate campuses, this massive underground network allows officials to move between buildings without ever stepping outside or into public view.
What is a tunnel system?
These tiny subatomic particles orbit the nucleus in specific energy levels or "shells."
What are electrons?
Nothing in the universe can travel faster than this, which clocks in at approximately 186,282 miles per second.
What is the speed of light?
Landing in 2021, this NASA rover is currently exploring Jezero Crater.
What is Perseverance?
This type of volatile memory stores data that the computer is actively using, but is cleared when the power is turned off.
What is RAM (Random Access Memory)?
High-security compounds often use "acoustic sensors" or this type of camera, which can detect an intruder's body heat even in total darkness or through thick fog.
What is a thermal (or infrared) camera?
This term describes atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.
What are isotopes?
Named after a princess in Greek mythology, this spiral galaxy is the closest large neighbor to our own Milky Way.
What is Andromeda?
From the Greek for "man-like," this term describes robots designed to resemble the human body in form and function.
What is an Android?
This 19th-century mathematician is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer for her work on Babbage's Analytical Engine.
Who was Ada Lovelace?
To protect against aerial threats, the White House is famously defended by this surface-to-air missile system, which is part of the integrated air defense for the D.C. area.
What is NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System)?
In 1911, this physicist discovered that atoms are mostly empty space with his famous "gold foil" experiment.
Who was Ernest Rutherford?
In a black hole, this is the name for the theoretical boundary beyond which no light or radiation can escape.
What is the event horizon?
In robotics, this term refers to the specific number of independent ways a mechanical system can move, such as rotation or translation.
What is Degrees of Freedom (DOF)?
Invented at Bell Labs in 1947, this tiny semiconductor device replaced bulky vacuum tubes and made modern computing possible.
What is a transistor?
In "Hyper-Rich" tech HQs and government SCIFs, these specially designed rooms use copper shielding to prevent this type of "spying" where attackers intercept electronic signals leaking from cables and monitors.
What is EMSEC (Emission Security) or Faraday shielding?
In this type of chemical bond, two atoms share one or more pairs of electrons to achieve stability.
What is a covalent bond?