-ics, -tics [-ac after i]

(Greek: a suffix that forms nouns and is usually used to form names of arts and sciences)

silvics
skeptics, sceptics
1. People who habitually have doubts about accepted beliefs.
2. Those who question the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.
2. People who maintain a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements, or the character of others.
social pediatrics
A whole-family and whole-community approach to child medical problems and prevention.

To focus on an entire neighborhood village at once, new community center facilities were required that allowed for communal meals, play, unstructured time, and other elements of an intentional community.

Doctors and nurses are introduced to children first as playmates, not as supervisors, increasing their trust and likelihood that key information about the sources of their medical issues will be revealed and accurately integrated into their medical needs.

sociolinguistics
The study of the relationships between language and social and cultural factors.
speechomics
The study of language acquisition and the study of human speech patterns.
spherics
Spherical geometry and spherical trigonometry.
sphragistics
A seal (not the animal).

This refers to a branch of philology and paleography dealing with the study of seals. A knowledge of ecclesiastical, political, or private seals is of great value in dating or otherwise determining the significance of an ancient document.

spintronics
1. The storage and transfer of information using the spin state of electrons as well as their charge.
2. A new technology exploiting quantum properties of electrons' spin for a new generation of electronic devices.
3. Known as "spin-based electronics" it is also known as magnetoelectronics and it is an emergent technology which exploits the quantum spin states of electrons as well as making use of their charge state.

Spintronics is an advanced form of electronics that harnesses not just the electrical charge of electrons; such as, in conventional electronics; but also a property called "spin" that makes electrons act like tine bar magnets.

Some computers already contain the first and most rudimentary commercial applications of spintronics. Since 1998, hard-drive read heads have used a spintronic effect called giant magnetoresistance to detect the microscopic magnetic domains on a disk that represent the 1's and the 0's of the data it contains.

  • Electrons carry both charge and spin, but only spintronic devices exploit the two properties simultaneously to achieve innovative capabilities.
  • Spintronics brings us disk-drive read heads and non-volatile memory chips today and perhaps instant-on computers with reconfigurable chips tomorrow.
  • Synthetic semi-conducting diamond may be the new silicon for a future era of quantum spintronic technology that manipulates single spins, enabling quantum computers, and other quantum information devices.

The advantages of spintronics

  1. Very high densities of data storage on disk drives.
  2. Nonvolatile memory chips.
  3. "Instant-on" computers.
  4. Chips that both store and process data.
  5. Chips operating at higher speeds and consuming less power than current conventional ones.
  6. Chips with logic gates that can be reconfigured on the fly.
  7. Quantum cryptography and quantum computing at room temperature.

—Most information for this word-section came from
"The Diamond Age of Spintronics"
by David D. Awschalom, Ryan Epstein, and Ronald Hanson
Scientific American, October, 2007; pages 56-65.
spirometrics
statistics (s) (noun) (no plural)
A field of mathematics that enables a person to deduce or to make a conclusion about a large body of people which is found on information gathered from a much smaller group: There are many types of statistics including biometrics, curvilinear correlation, and nonparametric statistics.
stato-acoustics (s) (noun) (no pl)
A reference to the senses or faculties of both equilibration (equilibrium, or being evenly balanced) and hearing: The acoustician who fitted Esther with her new hearing aide was careful to ensure a well-balanced condition of stato-acoustics.
supersonics
1. A branch of science that deals with supersonic phenomena.
2. The study of phenomena produced by the motion of a body through a medium at velocities greater than that of sound.
3. The science or study of supersonic motion or phenomena; it is used with a singular verb: "Supersoncis is her favorite subject of all of the sciences in which she has been engaged."
sylvics
tactic (s) (noun), tactics (pl)
1. The military science that deals with securing objectives set by strategy; especially, the technique of deploying and directing troops, ships, and aircraft in effective maneuvers against an enemy: "Tactics is a required course at all military academies."
2. Maneuvers used against an enemy: "Guerrilla tactics were employed during most of the war."
3. A procedure or set of maneuvers engaged in to achieve an end, an aim, or a goal.
tauromachics (noun) (a plural form used as a singular)
The business of bullfighting.