Science — page 16 of 132

13,110 terms including subtopics (0 terms filed directly here)

Subtopics

Science terms

  1. Blowdown water See Blowdown
  2. Blower The device in an air conditioner that distributes the filtered air from the return duct over the cooling coil/heat exchanger.
  3. Blower Door A device used by energy auditors to pressurize a building to locate places of air leakage and energy loss.
  4. Blowing A descriptor used to amplify observed weather phenomena whenever the phenomena are raised to a height of 6 feet or more above the ground
  5. Blowing Dust or Sand Strong winds over dry ground, that has little or no vegetation, can lift particles of dust or sand into the air.
  6. Blowing Snow Blowing snow is wind-driven snow that reduces surface visibility. Blowing snow can be falling snow or snow that has already accumulated but is picked up…
  7. Blowing Snow Advisory Issued when wind driven snow reduces surface visibility, possibly, hampering traveling.
  8. Blown In Insulation (see also Loose Fill) An insulation product composed of loose fibers or fiber pellets that are blown into building cavities or attics using special pneumatic equipment.
  9. Blowout A wind-eroded section of a sand dune caused by a disturbance or removal of the vegetation.
  10. Blue tops Grade stakes whose tops indicate finish grade level.
  11. Blue Watch or Blue Box [Slang], a severe thunderstorm watch.
  12. blunt end The end of a double-stranded DNA molecule in which neither strand extends beyond the other. Synonym: flush end.
  13. blunt-end cut To cut a double-stranded DNA with a restriction endonuclease which generates blunt ends . Synonym: flush-end cut.
  14. blunt-end ligation The joining of two blunt-ended double-stranded DNA molecules.
  15. Blustery Same as Breezy; 15 to 25 mph winds.
  16. BLV before
  17. BLZD Blizzard- A blizzard means that the following conditions are expected to prevail for a period of 3 hours or longer: Sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35…
  18. BMP A Windows file format for storing bit map images.
  19. BN Blowing Sand
  20. BNDRY Boundary
  21. BO Biological Opinion.
  22. Board feet (BF) (BF) Unit of measure for logs and lumber. One board foot is equivalent to a piece of wood 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and 12 inches long.
  23. BOD Abbreviation for biological oxygen demand.
  24. BOD5 The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed in five days by biological processes breaking down organic matter. See biochemical oxygen demand.
  25. Boiler A vessel or tank where heat produced from the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, fuel oil, or coal is used to generate hot water or steam for…
  26. Boiler Feedwater The water that is forced into a boiler to take the place of that which is evaporated in the generation of steam.
  27. Boiler Horsepower A unit of rate of water evaporation equal to the evaporation per hour of 34.5 pounds of water at a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit into steam at 212…
  28. Boiler Pressure The pressure of the steam or water in a boiler as measured; usually expressed in pounds per square inch gauge (psig).
  29. Boiler Rating The heating capacity of a steam boiler; expressed in Btu per hour (Btu/h), or horsepower, or pounds of steam per hour.
  30. Bolide Informally defined as an exploding meteor that resembles a bright fireball.
  31. Bolson (floor) A term applied to an internally drained (closed) intermontane basin in arid regions where drainages from adjacent mountains converge toward a central…
  32. BOM U.S. Bureau of Mines.
  33. Bomb Popular expression of a rapid intensification of a cyclone (low pressure) with surface pressure expected to fall by at least 24 millibars in 24 hour.
  34. BON The necrosis (death) of bone tissue caused by treatment with a bisphosphonate (a drug or substance used to treat osteoporosis, bone pain caused by some…
  35. Bone (Oven) Dry In reference to solid biomass fuels, such as wood, having zero moisture content.
  36. Bone dry Having zero percent moisture content. Wood heated in an oven at a constant temperature of 212 degrees F or above until its weight stabilizes is considered…
  37. Bone dry ton (or "oven dry ton"). An amount of wood that weighs 2,000 pounds at zero percent moisture content.
  38. Bone Dry Unit A quantity of (solid) biomass fuel equal to 2,400 pounds bone dry.
  39. Bone dry unit (BDU) (BDU) A quantity of wood residue which weighs 2,400 pounds at zero percent moisture content.
  40. Bone marrow (bone MAYR-oh) The soft, sponge-like tissue in the center of most bones. It produces white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
  41. Bone marrow (BM) cell Refers to both hematopoietic and mesenchymal (stromal) cells.
  42. Bone Marrow Aspiration (bone MAYR-oh as-pih-RAY-shun) The removal of a small sample of bone marrow (usually from the hip) through a needle for examination under a microscope.
  43. Bone Marrow Biopsy (bone MAYR-oh BY-op-see) The removal of a sample of tissue from the bone marrow with a needle for examination under a microscope.
  44. Bone marrow stem cell (BMSC) One of at least two types of multipotient stem cells: hematopoietic stem cell and mesenchymal stem cell.
  45. Bone marrow stromal cell Also known as mesenchymal stem cells, bone marrow stromal cells are a mixed population of cells derived from the non-blood forming fraction of bone marrow.
  46. Bone marrow stromal cells A mixed population of stem cells found in bone marrow that does not give rise to blood cells but instead generates bone, cartilage, fat, and fibrous…
  47. bone marrow transplantation (bone MAYR-oh tranz-plan-TAY-shun) A procedure to replace bone marrow that has been destroyed by treatment with high doses of anticancer drugs or…
  48. Bone marrow transplantation (BMTx) Trans-planta-tion of bone marrow from one individual to another. Autologous BMTx is a process in which a patient's healthy bone marrow is withdrawn and…
  49. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) Proteins thatare involved in the formation of embryonic bone. BMPs operate at several stages in this formation of bone, beginning with the early stages of…
  50. Bonnet The upper portion or the cover of a gate valve body.
  51. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) One of five federal power marketing administrations that sell low cost electric power produced by federal hydro electric dams to agricultural and…
  52. Books. See publications.
  53. Booster Pump A pump for circulating the heat transfer fluid in a hydronic heating system.
  54. Boot To start up or reset a computer.
  55. BOR U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
  56. Bora A regional downslope wind whose source is so cold that it is experienced as a cold wind, despite compression warming as it descends the lee slope of a…
  57. Border Ice An ice sheet in the form of a long border attached to the bank or shore.; shore ice.
  58. Borderline soils Soils that have the characteristics of two of the classification groups in the Unified Soil Classification System.
  59. Boreal Living in and adapted for living in the extreme northern areas of the world. This area is located just below tundra conditions.
  60. Borehole Any exploratory hole drilled into the Earth or ice to gather geophysical data. Climate researchers often take ice core samples, a type of borehole, to…
  61. Boring Rotary drilling.
  62. boring platform Sterile bottom half of a Petri dish used for preparing explants with a cork borer.
  63. Boron The chemical element commonly used as the dopant in solar photovoltaic device or cell material.
  64. Borrow Material excavated from one area to be used as fill material in another area.
  65. Borrow areas Generally, surface areas, that contain borrow pits. The area from which material for an embankment is excavated.
  66. Borrow material Material such as soil or sand that is removed from one location and used as fill material in another location.
  67. Borrow pit A pit or excavation area used for gathering earth materials (borrow) such as sand or gravel.
  68. Borrow pits Specific site(s) within a borrow area from which material is excavated for use.
  69. Bottled Gas A generic term for liquefied and pressurized gas, ordinarily butane, propane, or a mixture of the two, contained in a cylinder for domestic use.
  70. Bottom ash Noncombustible ash that is left after solid fuel has been burned.
  71. Bottoming cycle A means to increase the thermal efficiency of a steam electric generating system by converting some waste heat from the condenser into electricity.
  72. Boulder A rock fragment, usually rounded by weathering or abrasion, with an average dimension of 12 inches or more: will not pass a 12-inch screen.
  73. Boulder clay A geological term used to designate glacial drift that has not been subjected to the sorting action of water and therefore contains particles from…
  74. bound water Cellular water not released into the intercellular space upon freezing and thawing. Opposite: free water.
  75. Boundary Layer In general, a layer of air adjacent to a bounding surface. Specifically, the term most often refers to the planetary boundary layer, which is the layer…
  76. Bounded Weak Echo Region (BWER) (Also known as a vault.) Radar signature within a thunderstorm characterized by a local minimum in radar reflectivity at low levels which extends upward…
  77. BOVC Base of Overcast
  78. bovine growth hormone See: bovine somatotrophin
  79. bovine somatotrophin (Abbreviation: BST) A natural protein in cattle. It has been cloned, using recombinant DNA technology, expressed in large amounts and marketed as an…
  80. bovine somatotropin See: bovine somatotrophin.
  81. bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Abbreviation: BSE) Cattle disease (colloquially called mad cow disease) caused by proteinaceous infectious particle s.
  82. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) A disease of cattle, related to scrapie of sheep, also known as “mad cow disease.
  83. Bow Echo A radar echo which is linear but bent outward in a bow shape. Damaging straight-line winds often occur near the "crest" or center of a bow echo.
  84. Bowen Ratio For any moist surface, the ratio of heat energy used for sensible heating (conduction and convection) to the heat energy used for latent heating…
  85. Box girder A hollow steel beam with a square or rectangular cross section.
  86. Box Model A computer model used to calculate air pollution concentrations. A box model is based on the assumption that pollutants are emitted into a box through…
  87. Boyle's law When the temperature is held constant, the pressure and density of an ideal gas are directly proportional.
  88. BP See Base pair.
  89. BPA - Bonneville Power Administration, blanket purchase agreement.
  90. BR Mist
  91. Brackish Water of intermediate salinity between seawater and freshwater.
  92. Brackish Ice Ice formed from Brackish water.
  93. bract A modified leaf that subtends flowers or inflorescences and may appear to be a petal.
  94. Braided Stream Characterized by successive division and rejoining of streamflow with accompanying islands. A braided stream is composed of anabranches.
  95. Braided streams Braided streams have multiple channels that are interlaced in a braided pattern, with very low stream gradient (<0.
  96. BRAIN Bureau of Reclamation Acquisition Information Network.
  97. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) A growth factor synthesized in the brain that stimulates neurite outgrowth and supports survival of neurons.
  98. Brake horsepower The brake horsepower of a pump is the actual motor input horsepower required to produce the hydraulic horsepower from a pump (flow and head) taking into…
  99. Branch An addition to the main pipe in a piping system.
  100. Brash Ice Accumulation of floating ice made up of fragments not more than 2 meters across; the wreckage of other forms of ice.