A fictional (yet very apparent) disease, contracted when one is perceived to have worked at the MDEC for an abnormal period of time.

Symptoms include: random hand gestures, Dick and Dom quotes, Napoleon Dynamite quotes, outlandish nicknames assigned to virtually everyone in the workplace, and completely bizarre "games" played at the MDEC during quiet periods (most of the time), with utterly irrelevant rules.

The safeguarding of Earth and other worlds from biological cross-contamination (i.e. billionaires with too much time on their hands).

Also known as “planetary protection.” Planetary protection / quarantine “reflects both the unknown nature of the space environment and the desire of the scientific community to preserve the pristine nature of celestial bodies until they can be studied in detail.”

There are two types of interplanetary contamination. Forward contamination is the transfer of viable organisms from Earth to another celestial body. Back contamination is the transfer of extraterrestrial organisms, if such exist, back to the Earth's biosphere.