Science terms starting with C

1,236 terms

Congestion costs Charges assessed and redistributed due to electricity network constraints.
Congestus (or Cumulus Congestus) - same as towering cumulus.
Conglomerate A conglomerate is a corporation whose multiple business units operate in different, often unrelated, areas.
Congressional (Energy) Committees : House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment — This committee has legislative jurisdiction and general and special oversight and investigative…
Congressional Organic Act of 1890 The act that assigned the responsibility of river and floor forecasting for the benefit of the general welfare of the Nation's people and economy to the…
conidium (pl.: conidia) An produced by a specialized hypha in certain fungi.
Conifer A plant commonly having needlelike, persistent leaves and a woody cone for a fruit.
Coniferous trees Cone-bearing trees, mostly evergreens, that have needle-shaped or scale-like leaves. They produce wood known commercially as softwood. See deciduous trees.
Conifers Cone-bearing trees or shrubs, mostly evergreens such as pine, cedar, and spruce.
Coning With regards to wildfires, pattern of plume dispersion in a neutral atmosphere, in which the plume attains the form of a cone with its vertex at the top…
Conjugate Points Two points on the earth's surface, at opposite ends of a geomagnetic field line
Conjugation The joining of two bacteria cells when genetic material is transferred from one bacterium to another.
conjugative functions Plasmid-based genes and their products that facilitate the transfer of a plasmid from one bacterium to another via conjugation.
Conjunctive use The coordinated use of surface water and ground water resources.
Connected Load The sum of the ratings of the electricity consuming apparatus connected to a generating system.
connection The physical connection (e.g. transmission lines, transformers, switch gear, etc.
Connection Charge An amount paid by a customer for being connected to an electricity supplier's transmission and distribution system.
consanguinity Related by descent from a common ancestor.
consensus sequence The part of a gene or signal sequence that is shared over a wide range of members of a gene family, both within a given species, or in comparisons between…
Consequences Potential loss of life or property damage downstream of a dam caused by flood waters released at the dam or by waters released by partial or complete…
Conservation See: gene (resources) conservation, conserved sequence
Conservation Areas Environmentally sensitive and valuable lands protected from any activity that would significantly alter their ecological integrity, balance, or character…
Conservation Cost Adjustment A means of billing electric power consumers to pay for the costs of demand side management/energy conservation measures and programs.
Conservation Easements Conservation easements are voluntary, legally binding agreements for landowners that limit parcels of land or pieces of property to certain uses.
Conservation Storage Storage of water for later release for usual purposes such as municipal water supply, power, or irrigation in contrast with storage capacity used for…
Conserved sequence An identical or highly similar sequence of nucleotides or amino acids which occurs as part, or all of a number of different genes or protein s, in either…
Consistency The relative ease with which a soil can be deformed.
Consolidated Ice Cover Ice cover formed by the packing and freezing together of floes, brash ice and other forms of floating ice.
Consolidation Reduction in particle spacing in a soil, and decrease in water content, resulting from an increase in external pressure.
Consolidation curve Any function relating volume change to time.
Consolidation grouting Strengthening an area of ground by injecting grout.
Consolidation Grouting (Blanket Grouting) The injection of grout to consolidate a layer of the foundation, resulting in greater impermeability and/or strength.
Consolidometer Apparatus used for one-dimensional consolidation/compression testing.
Constant angle arch dam An arch dam in which the angle subtended by any horizontal section is constant throughout the whole height of the dam.
Constant Dollars The value or purchasing power of a dollar in a specified year carried forward or backward.
constant domains Regions of antibody chains that have the same amino acid sequence in different members of a particular class of antibody molecules.
Constant of Proportionality When scientists or theoreticians find a mathematical relationship between two quantities, they design an equation, so that, for example, if one quantity…
Constant Pressure Chart Alternate term for Isobaric Chart; a weather map representing conditions on a surface of equal atmospheric pressure.
Constant radius arch dam An arch dam in which every horizontal segment or slice of the dam has approximately the same radius of curvature.
Constant-Speed Wind Turbines Wind turbines that operate at a constant rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) and are optimized for energy capture at a given rotor diameter at a particular…
constitutive The expression of a gene without any requirement for induction.
Constitutive ablation Gene expression that results in cell death.
constitutive gene A gene that is continually expressed in all cells of an organism.
Constitutive promoter An unregulated promoter that allows for continual transcription of its associated gene. (See Promoter.)
constitutive synthesis Continual synthesis of a gene product by an organism.
construct An engineered chimeric DNA designed to be transferred into a cell or tissue. Typically, the construct comprises the gene or genes of interest, a marker…
Construction Joint Construction joints are purposely placed in concrete to facilitate construction; to reduce initial shrinkage stresses and cracks; to allow time for the…
Consumer surplus The value of a commodity, good, or opportunity above the cost to the consumer; measured using willingness to pay, as specified in Federal guidelines for…
Consumption Charge The part of a power provider's charge based on actual energy consumed by the customer; the product of the kilowatt-hour rate and the total kilowatt-hours…
Consumptive use (1) Any use of water that permanently removes water from the natural stream system.
Consumptive water use Total amount of water used by vegetation, man's activities, and evaporation of surface water.
CONT Continue/Continuously
Contact grouting Filling, with cement grout, any voids existing at the contact of two zones of different materials, e.g.
Contact load Sediment particles that roll or slide along in almost continuous contact with the streambed.
Contact Resistance The resistance between metallic contacts and the semiconductor.
contained use See: containment.
containment Measures and protocols applied to limit contact of genetically modified organisms or pathogens with the external environment. Synonym: contained use.
Containment levee A dike or embankment to contain stream flow.
Contaminant 1. An undesired chemical present in a compound or mixture of compounds. 2. Any micro-organism accidentally introduced into a culture or culture medium.
Contamination To make impure, infected, corrupt, etc, by contact with or addition of something; to pollute something.
Contents The volume of water in a reservoir. Unless otherwise indicated reservoir content is computed on the basis of a level pool and does not include bank…
Context Sensitive Design (CSD) A collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic…
contig A set of overlapping cloned DNA fragments that can be assembled to represent a defined region of the chromosome or genome from which they were obtained.
Contig map A map depicting the relative order of a linked library of overlapping clones representing a complete chromosomal segment.
Contiguous Touching or very close together.
Contiguous (contig) map The alignment of sequence data from large, adjacent regions of the genome to produce a continuous nucleotide sequence across a chromosomal region.
Continental Air Mass A dry air mass originating over a large land area. Contrast with tropical air mass.
Continental Shelf The zone bordering a continent and extending to a depth, usually around 100 FM, from which there is a steep descent toward greater depth.
Contingencies Used in appraisal and feasibility estimates to estimate overruns on quantities, changed site conditions, change orders, etc.
Contingent valuation Survey method asking for the maximum values that users would pay for access to a particular activity.
continuous culture A suspension culture continuously supplied with nutrients by the inflow of fresh medium. The culture volume is normally constant.
continuous fermentation A process in which cells or micro-organisms are maintained in culture in the exponential growth phase by the continuous addition of fresh medium that is…
continuous variation Variation where individuals cannot be classified as belonging to one of a set of discrete classes.
Continuous-flow irrigation System of irrigation water delivery where each irrigator receives their allotted quantity of water at a continuous rate.
Continuum Storm (CTM) In solar-terrestrial terms, general term for solar noise lasting for hours and sometimes days.
Contour A line of constant elevation.
Contour ditch Irrigation ditch laid out approximately on the contour.
Contour farming System of farming used for erosion control and moisture conservation whereby field operations are performed approximately on the contour.
Contour flooding Method of irrigation by flooding from contour ditches.
Contour map Topographic map that portrays relief or elevation differences by the use of lines (contours) indiciating equal elevation.
Contour plowing Plowing done in accordance with the natural outline or shape of the land by keeping the furrows or ditches at the same elevation as much as possible to…
Contour strip farming A kind of contour farming in which row crops are planted in strips, between alternating strips of close-growing, erosion resistant forage (grass, grain…
Contract rate The repayment or water service rate set forth in a contract to be paid by a district to the United States.
Contracted weir The crest and sides of a retangular weir are far enough from the bottom and sides of the channel so that their effect on flow is negligible.
Contraction joint Contraction joints are joints placed in concrete to provide for volumetric shrinkage of a monolithic unit or movement between monolithic units.
contrail (condensation trail) A cloudlike streamer frequently seen forming behind aircraft flying in clear, cold, humid air.
Contrast The difference between the brightness of an object compared to that of its immediate background.
Contrast level A description of the relative amount of visual contrast resulting from a change in the visible landscape.
Control area An electric power system or combination of electric power systems to which a common automatic control scheme is applied in order to: Match, at all times…
Control elements DNA sequences in genes that interact with regulatory proteins (such as transcription factors) to determine the rate and timing of expression of the genes…
Control house. See control structure.
Control joint Control joints are joints placed in concrete to provide for control of initial shrinkage stresses and cracks of monolithic units.
Control plot A plot in which no vegetation will be cut and natural succession will occur. A control plot serves as a baseline to compare other treatments (Early, Mid…
Control Points Horizontal and Vertical: Small monuments securely embedded in the surface of the dam. Any movement of the monument indicates a movement in the dam itself.
Control structure (control house) Concrete portion of an outlet works, located at the downstream end of the tunnel or conduit, housing the control (regulation) gates.
Controlled Environment A closed environment in which parameters, such as light, temperature, relative humidity and sometimes the partial gas pressure (and possibly its…
controlling element In eukaryotes, transposons which affect the activity of known genes. This can occur as a result of the integration within, or close to a gene, thereby…
CONTS continues
CONUS Continental United States
Convection The movement of matter due to changes in temperature and density. Warm material rises because it is less dense (lighter) and cool material sinks because…