Science — page 26 of 132

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

Subtopics

Science terms

  1. Condenser The device in an air conditioner or heat pump in which the refrigerant condenses from a gas to a liquid when it is depressurized or cooled.
  2. Condenser Coil The device in an air conditioner or heat pump through which the refrigerant is circulated and releases heat to the surroundings when a fan blows outside…
  3. Condensing Furnace A type of heating appliance that extracts so much of the available heat content from a combusted fuel that the moisture in the combustion gases condenses…
  4. Condensing power Power generated through a final steam turbine stage where the steam is exhausted into a condenser and cooled to a liquid to be recycled back into a boiler.
  5. Condensing turbine A turbine used for electrical power generation from a minimum amount of steam. To increase plant efficiency, these units can have multiple uncontrolled…
  6. Condensing Unit The component of a central air conditioner that is designed to remove heat absorbed by the refrigerant and transfer it outside the conditioned space.
  7. Condensing, controlled extraction turbines A controlled turbine that bleeds off (condenses) part of the main stream flow at one (single extraction) or two (double extraction) points.
  8. conditional lethal mutation A mutation that is lethal under one set of environmental conditions (the restrictive conditions, commonly associated with high temperature) but is viable…
  9. Conditional use permit A permit, with conditions, allowing an approved use on a site outside the appropriate zoning class.
  10. Conditional Use Permit (CUP) (CUP) In California, this is a permit that is required to be obtained from the county government authority in which a solar energy facility is to be located.
  11. Conditionally Unstable Air An atmospheric condition that exists when the environmental lapse rate is less than the dry adiabatic lapse rate but greater than the moist adiabatic…
  12. Conditioned Space The interior space of a building that is heated or cooled.
  13. conditioning 1. The effects on phenotypic characters of external agents during critical developmental stages. 2.
  14. Conduction The transfer of heat through a material by the transfer of kinetic energy from particle to particle; the flow of heat between two materials of different…
  15. Conduction Band An energy band in a semiconductor in which electrons can move freely in a solid, producing a net transport of charge.
  16. Conductivity (Thermal) This is a positive constant, k, that is a property of a substance and is used in the calculation of heat transfer rates for materials.
  17. Conductor The material through which electricity is transmitted, such as an electrical wire, or transmission or distribution line.
  18. Conduit A tubular material used to encase and protect one or more electrical conductors.
  19. Cone of Depression A depression in the water table that develops around a pumped well.
  20. Cone of Influence The depression, roughly conical in shape, produced in a water table, or other piezometric surface, by the extraction of water from a well at a given rate.
  21. Cone of influence (cone of depression) The depression, roughly conical in shape, produced in the water table by the pumping of water from a well. See circle of influence.
  22. Conference of the Parties The supreme body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  23. Confidentiality In genetics, the expectation that genetic material and the information gained from testing that material will not be available without the donor's consent.
  24. Confined aquifer See Aquifer-confined
  25. Confined Ground Water Ground water held under an aquiclude or an aquifuge called artesian if the pressure is positive.
  26. Confined space A space that is large enough to and so configured that a person can bodily enter and perform assigned work.
  27. Confluence The place where two streams meet, or the stream formed from two joining streams.
  28. conformation The various three dimensional shapes that can be adopted by a given molecule. In particular, the different ways in which the of a biological polymer may…
  29. Congenital Any trait or condition that exists from birth. See also
  30. Congestion A characteristic of the transmission system produced by a constraint on the optimum economic operation of the power system, such that the marginal price…
  31. Congestion costs Charges assessed and redistributed due to electricity network constraints.
  32. Congestus (or Cumulus Congestus) - same as towering cumulus.
  33. Conglomerate A conglomerate is a corporation whose multiple business units operate in different, often unrelated, areas.
  34. Congressional (Energy) Committees : House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment — This committee has legislative jurisdiction and general and special oversight and investigative…
  35. 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…
  36. conidium (pl.: conidia) An produced by a specialized hypha in certain fungi.
  37. Conifer A plant commonly having needlelike, persistent leaves and a woody cone for a fruit.
  38. 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.
  39. Conifers Cone-bearing trees or shrubs, mostly evergreens such as pine, cedar, and spruce.
  40. 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…
  41. Conjugate Points Two points on the earth's surface, at opposite ends of a geomagnetic field line
  42. Conjugation The joining of two bacteria cells when genetic material is transferred from one bacterium to another.
  43. conjugative functions Plasmid-based genes and their products that facilitate the transfer of a plasmid from one bacterium to another via conjugation.
  44. Conjunctive use The coordinated use of surface water and ground water resources.
  45. Connected Load The sum of the ratings of the electricity consuming apparatus connected to a generating system.
  46. connection The physical connection (e.g. transmission lines, transformers, switch gear, etc.
  47. Connection Charge An amount paid by a customer for being connected to an electricity supplier's transmission and distribution system.
  48. consanguinity Related by descent from a common ancestor.
  49. 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…
  50. 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…
  51. Conservation See: gene (resources) conservation, conserved sequence
  52. Conservation Areas Environmentally sensitive and valuable lands protected from any activity that would significantly alter their ecological integrity, balance, or character…
  53. Conservation Cost Adjustment A means of billing electric power consumers to pay for the costs of demand side management/energy conservation measures and programs.
  54. Conservation Easements Conservation easements are voluntary, legally binding agreements for landowners that limit parcels of land or pieces of property to certain uses.
  55. 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…
  56. 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…
  57. Consistency The relative ease with which a soil can be deformed.
  58. Consolidated Ice Cover Ice cover formed by the packing and freezing together of floes, brash ice and other forms of floating ice.
  59. Consolidation Reduction in particle spacing in a soil, and decrease in water content, resulting from an increase in external pressure.
  60. Consolidation curve Any function relating volume change to time.
  61. Consolidation grouting Strengthening an area of ground by injecting grout.
  62. Consolidation Grouting (Blanket Grouting) The injection of grout to consolidate a layer of the foundation, resulting in greater impermeability and/or strength.
  63. Consolidometer Apparatus used for one-dimensional consolidation/compression testing.
  64. 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.
  65. Constant Dollars The value or purchasing power of a dollar in a specified year carried forward or backward.
  66. constant domains Regions of antibody chains that have the same amino acid sequence in different members of a particular class of antibody molecules.
  67. 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…
  68. Constant Pressure Chart Alternate term for Isobaric Chart; a weather map representing conditions on a surface of equal atmospheric pressure.
  69. Constant radius arch dam An arch dam in which every horizontal segment or slice of the dam has approximately the same radius of curvature.
  70. 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…
  71. constitutive The expression of a gene without any requirement for induction.
  72. Constitutive ablation Gene expression that results in cell death.
  73. constitutive gene A gene that is continually expressed in all cells of an organism.
  74. Constitutive promoter An unregulated promoter that allows for continual transcription of its associated gene. (See Promoter.)
  75. constitutive synthesis Continual synthesis of a gene product by an organism.
  76. 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…
  77. Construction Joint Construction joints are purposely placed in concrete to facilitate construction; to reduce initial shrinkage stresses and cracks; to allow time for the…
  78. 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…
  79. 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…
  80. Consumptive use (1) Any use of water that permanently removes water from the natural stream system.
  81. Consumptive water use Total amount of water used by vegetation, man's activities, and evaporation of surface water.
  82. CONT Continue/Continuously
  83. Contact grouting Filling, with cement grout, any voids existing at the contact of two zones of different materials, e.g.
  84. Contact load Sediment particles that roll or slide along in almost continuous contact with the streambed.
  85. Contact Resistance The resistance between metallic contacts and the semiconductor.
  86. contained use See: containment.
  87. containment Measures and protocols applied to limit contact of genetically modified organisms or pathogens with the external environment. Synonym: contained use.
  88. Containment levee A dike or embankment to contain stream flow.
  89. 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.
  90. Contamination To make impure, infected, corrupt, etc, by contact with or addition of something; to pollute something.
  91. 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…
  92. Context Sensitive Design (CSD) (CSD) A collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic…
  93. 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.
  94. Contig map A map depicting the relative order of a linked library of overlapping clones representing a complete chromosomal segment.
  95. Contiguous Touching or very close together.
  96. 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.
  97. Continental Air Mass A dry air mass originating over a large land area. Contrast with tropical air mass.
  98. 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.
  99. Contingencies Used in appraisal and feasibility estimates to estimate overruns on quantities, changed site conditions, change orders, etc.
  100. Contingent valuation Survey method asking for the maximum values that users would pay for access to a particular activity.