Science terms starting with C

1,236 terms

  1. cell generation time The interval between the beginning of consecutive divisions of a cell, equivalent to the time that it takes for a population of single-celled organisms to…
  2. cell hybridization See: cell fusion.
  3. Cell line 1. A cell lineage that can be maintained in vitro. Significant genetic changes can occur during lengthy periods in culture, so that the genotype of…
  4. cell membrane See: plasmalemma.
  5. cell number The number of cells per unit volume of a culture.
  6. cell plate The precursor of the cell wall, formed at the beginning of cell division. The cell plate develops in the region of the equatorial plate and arises from…
  7. cell sap Water and dissolved substances, sugar, amino acids, waste substances, etc., in the plant cell vacuole.
  8. cell selection The process of selecting cells exhibiting specific traits within a group of genetically different cells.
  9. cell sorter See: fluorescence-activated cell sorting, flow cytometry.
  10. cell strain An in vitro culture initiated by asexual reproduction from a single cell. Such cell lines should represent a population of genetically homogenous cells.
  11. cell suspension Cells in culture in moving or shaking liquid medium, often used to describe suspension cultures of single cells and cell aggregates.
  12. Cell type A specific subset of cells within the body, defined by their appearance, location and function.
  13. cell wall A rigid external structure which surrounds plant cells. It is formed outside the plasmalemma and consists primarily of cellulose.
  14. Cell-based therapies Treatment in which stem cells are induced to differentiate into the specific cell type required to repair damaged or destroyed cells or tissues.
  15. cell-free protein synthesis See: in vitro translation.
  16. cell-free transcription See: in vitro transcription.
  17. cell-free translation See: in vitro translation.
  18. cell-mediated (cellular) immune response See: T-cell-mediated (cellular) immune response.
  19. Cellular gravity dam. See hollow gravity dam.
  20. cellular oncogene See: proto-oncogene.
  21. Cellular oncogene (proto-oncogene) A normal gene that when mutated or improperly expressed contributes to the development of cancer. (See Oncogene.)
  22. Cellular therapy A field of medicine that uses cells to repair tissues that have been damaged by human disease or to generate new tissues with desired functional…
  23. Cellulase Enzyme catalysing the breakdown of cellulose.
  24. Cellulose (SEL-yoo-lose) A building block of plant cells and fiber. Cellulose cannot be digested by people, and is used to add bulk to the diet.
  25. Cellulose Insulation A type of insulation composed of waste newspaper, cardboard, or other forms of waste paper.
  26. cellulose nitrate See: nitrocellulose.
  27. cellulosome A multi-protein aggregate present in some micro-organisms which degrade cellulose.
  28. Celsius The standard scale used to measure temperature in most areas outside the United States.
  29. Celsius (C), (°C) Unit of temperature. Degrees Celsius equals (5/9)x(degrees Fahrenheit-32).
  30. CEM Civil Emergency Message. A message issued by the National Weather Service in coordination with Federal, state or local government to warn the general…
  31. Cenozoic An era of geologic time from the beginning of the Tertiary period (65 million years ago) to the present. Its name is from the Greek and it means "new life.
  32. Census block Census blocks are defined by the U.S. Bureau of Census and are the smallest geographic unit for which the Census Bureau tabulates data.
  33. Census block groups Geographic entities consisting of groups of individual census blocks. Census blocks are grouped together so that they contain between 250 and 550 housing…
  34. Center Generally speaking, the vertical axis of a tropical cyclone, usually defined by the location of minimum wind or minimum pressure.
  35. Center / Vortex Fix The location of the center of a tropical or subtropical cyclone obtained by reconnaissance aircraft penetration, satellite, radar, or synoptic data.
  36. Center pivot irrigation A form of sprinkler irrigation consisting of several segments of pipe (usually galvanized steel or aluminum) that are joined together and supported by…
  37. Centers of origin Usually the location in the world where the oldest cultivation of a particular crop has been identified.
  38. Centimeter Burst A solar radio burst in the centimeter wavelength range.
  39. centiMorgan (Abbreviation: cM). Unit of map distance. For small recombination fractions, cM and % recombination frequency are equivalent.
  40. Centimorgan (cM) A unit of measure of recombination frequency. One centimorgan is equal to a 1% chance that a marker at one genetic locus will be separated from a marker…
  41. Central Arizona Project (CAP) Aqueduct A 336-mi (541-km) long diversion canal operated by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District that diverts water from the Colorado River into central…
  42. Central Business District (CBD) The downtown retail trade and commercial area of a city or town, or an area of very high land valuation, traffic flow, and concentration of retail…
  43. Central dogma Francis Crick's seminal concept that in nature genetic information generally flows from DNA to RNA to protein.
  44. Central flyway An important international migration route for many birds.
  45. Central Heating System A system where heat is supplied to areas of a building from a single appliance through a network of ducts or pipes.
  46. Central Line A central line is a flexible tube that is inserted near a patient's heart or into one of the large blood vessels near the heart.
  47. Central Meridian Passage (CMP) In solar-terrestrial terms, the passage of an Active Region or other feature across the longitude meridian that passes through the apparent center of the…
  48. central mother cell A subsurface cell located in a plant apical meristem and characterized by a large vacuole.
  49. Central North Pacific Basin The region north of the Equator between 140W and the International Dateline. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) in Honolulu, Hawaii is…
  50. Central Power Plant A large power plant that generates power for distribution to multiple customers.
  51. Central Receiver Solar Power Plants Also known as "power towers," these use fields of two-axis tracking mirrors known as heliostats.
  52. Centralized Automated Data Acquisition System (CADAS) A system of two minicomputers in NWSH that interrogates LARCs and DARDCs by telephone every 6 hours and transmits the data to AFOS via HADS.
  53. Centralized Exchange A market where market participants execute all transactions with the central entity operating under a set of rules (product specifications, execution…
  54. Centralized sewage treatment The collection and treatment of sewage from many sources to remove pollutants and pathogens.
  55. centre of origin The geographic locations where a particular domesticated plant species originated.
  56. centrifugal force A force directed outward, away from the center of a rotating object; equal in magnitude to the centripetal force but in the opposite direction.
  57. Centrifugal pump A pump that moves water by centrifugal force developed by rapid rotation of an impeller.
  58. Centrifugation Separating molecules by size or density using centrifugal forces generated by a spinning rotor.
  59. centrifuge A mechanical device which delivers the centrifugal forces necessary for centrifugation.
  60. centriole An organelle in many animal cells that appears to be involved in the formation of the spindle during mitosis.
  61. centripetal force An inward-directed force that confines an object to a circular path and is equal in magnitude to the centrifugal force but in the opposite direction.
  62. CENTROID The center of mass of a storm.
  63. Centromere The central portion of the chromosome to which the spindle fibers attach during mitotic and meiotic division.
  64. centrosome A specialized region of a living cell, situated next to the nucleus, where microtubules are assembled and broken down during cell division.
  65. cephem-type antibiotic An antibiotic that shares the basic chemical structure of cephalosporin.
  66. CEQ See Council on Environmental Quality
  67. CERCLA See Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980
  68. Cerebrospinal fluid (seh-REE-broh-SPY-nul...) The fluid that flows in and around the hollow spaces of the brain and spinal cord, and between two of the meninges (the thin…
  69. Certification signature Certification signatures are those of the persons who co-facilitated the risk analysis.
  70. Certified water right A State-issued document that serves as legal evidence that an approved application has been physically developed and the water put to beneficial use.
  71. Cetane Ignition performance rating of diesel fuel.
  72. Cetane Number A measure of a fuel's (liquid) ease of self-ignition.
  73. CFC See Consumption of fixed capital (CFC)
  74. cfm Cubic feet per minute.
  75. CFP Cold Front Passage
  76. CFS core financial system
  77. Cfs-Day The volume of water discharged in twenty four hours, with a flow of one cubic foot per second is widely used; 1 cfs-day is 24 x 60 x 60 = 86,000 cubic…
  78. CG Cloud-to-Ground Lightning
  79. chain terminator 1. See: stop codon. 2. In the Sanger method of DNA sequencing, refers to the labelled di-deoxynucleotide triphosphates which are added to disrupt DNA…
  80. Chakrabarty decision A landmark legal case in the U.S.A., in which it was held that the inventor of a new micro-organism whose invention otherwise met the legal requirements…
  81. Chamfer To bevel or slope an edge or corner.
  82. Chance A National Weather Service precipitation descriptor for 30, 40, or 50 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch).
  83. Change-out The routine replacement of chemicals contained in process equipment, in accordance with schedules established by the manufacturer, or as a result of…
  84. Channel The bed of a stream or river. This can also refer to a submerged stream or river channel in a reservoir.
  85. Channel (watercourse) An open conduit either naturally or artificially created which periodically, or continuously contains moving water, or forms a connecting link between two…
  86. Channel incision The process of downcutting into a stream channel leading to a decrease in the channel bed elevation.
  87. Channel Inflow Water, which at any instant, is flowing into the channel system form surface flow, subsurface flow, base flow, and rainfall that has directly fallen onto…
  88. Channel Lead An elongated opening in the ice cover caused by a water current.
  89. Channel margin deposits Narrow sand deposits which line channel banks.
  90. Channel Routing The process of determining progressively timing and shape of the flood wave at successive points along a river.
  91. Channeled High Winds In mountainous areas or in cities with tall buildings, air may be channeled through constricted passages producing high winds.
  92. Channelization The modification of a natural river channel; may include deepening, widening, or straightening.
  93. chaotic impossible to predict.
  94. Chaparral A plant community of shrubs and low trees adapted to annual drought and often extreme summer heat and also highly adapted to fires recurring every 5 to 20…
  95. chaperone A family of proteins that ensure the correct assembly and conformation of other polypeptides in vivo as they emerge from the ribosome, but are not…
  96. chaperonin See: chaperone.
  97. Char A byproduct of low-temperature carbonization of a solid fuel.
  98. character See: trait.
  99. Characterization Description of the essential properties of an organism or system.
  100. Charcoal The black porous residue of partly burnt wood, bones, etc; a form of carbon. See: activated charcoal