Glossary Flashcards
What is accuracy?
A measurement is accurate if it is close to its true value.
What is acid rain?
Acid rain is rain that is acid due to dissolved gasses, such as sulphur dioxide being burnt from fossil fuels.
What is an active site?
The site on an enzyme in which the reactants bind.
What is Active transport?
The movement of substances against the concentration gradient or across a cell membrane.
What is adaptation?
A special feature which makes an organism suited to their environment.
What is adult cell cloning?
A process in which the nucleus of an adult cell is placed inside an empty egg from another animal, this embryo is then placed within the uterus of a third animal.
What is Aerobic respiration?
Breaking down food using oxygen to release energy for the cells.
What is agar?
The jelly of nutrients in which scientists use to grow microorganisms.
What are algal cells?
The cells of algae, they are single cells that have the ability to photosynthesise.
What is an Allele?
A version of a particular gene.
What are Alveoli?
The tiny air sacs in the lungs which increase surface area for gas exchange.
What are Amino acids?
The building blocks of protein.
What is amylase?
The enzyme made in the salivary glands and the pancreas that breaks down starch into simple sugars.
What is anaerobic respiration?
The breaking down of food with out the use of oxygen to produce energy for the cells, this will also produce lactic acids.
What is an antibiotic?
A drug that destroys bacteria in the body with out killing any body cells.
What is an antigen?
An antigen is a unique protein that provokes an adaptive response towards pathogens within the body.
What is an aorta?
The main artery leaving the left ventricle carrying oxygenated blood to the body.
What is an artery?
A blood vessel which usually carries oxygenated blood from the heart and has a pulse.
What is asexual budding?
A form of asexual production where the offspring forms as a bud on the parent organism, I.e yeast.
What is asexual production?
It is where offspring are produced by only one parent and does not require fusing of gametes. The offspring are identical to the parent.
What is the Atria and how do the right and left operate?
The small upper chambers of the heart. The right atrium receives blood from the body and the left receives blood from the lungs.
What is an auxin?
A plant hormone that controls how the plant reacts to light and gravity.
What is the shape of a biconcave disk?
The shape of red blood cells.
What is bile?
A yellow-green substance made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder. It is released into the small intestine and emulsifies fats.
What is biodiversity?
The range of organisms found in a specific area or habitat.
What is bio-fuel?
Fuel produced from biological material that is renewable and sustainable.
What is Biogas?
Methane produced by the fermentation of biological material.
What is Biological detergent?
Washing detergent that contains enzymes like lipase to wash clothes.
What is biomass?
Biological material from living or recently living organisms.
What is the bladder?
The organ where urine is stored until it is released from the body.
What is Blood?
The liquid in which oxygen is carried round the body in order for Aerobic respiration to take place. it also carries dissolved food, waste products and mineral ions.
What is a Blood vessel?
A tube that carries blood round the body, I.e arteries veins and capillaries.
What is breathing?
The physical action of air being pumped in and out of the lungs by contraction and retraction the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm.
What is the Breathing system.
The components needed for someone to breathe; the lungs, the ribs, the intercostal muscles, the diaphragm and the tubes which bring air into the body form the outside.
What are capillaries?
They are the smallest blood vessels that run between individual cells, only one cell thick.
What is carbohydrase?
An enzyme that speeds up the breakdown of carbohydrates.
What is the carbon cycle?
The cycle of carbon in the living and non living world.
What is a carrier?
An individual who is heterozygous for faulty allele that causes a genetic disease but is not affected themselves.
What is a catalyst?
A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction but is not used up in the process.
Cell membrane
The membrane around the contents of a cell that controls what comes in or out.
What is a cell wall?
A rigid structure that forms the shape of some cells.
What is cellulose?
A big carbohydrate molecule that makes up plant and algal cell walls.
What is the CNS?
The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal chord where information is processed.
What is Chlorophyll?
The green pigment contained in chloroplast.
What is chloroplast?
The organelles in which photosynthesis takes place.
What is a chromosome?
Thread like structure containing genetic information in the nucleus of a cell.
What is a clone?
Offspring produced by asexual reproduction which is identical to its parent organism.
What is natural competition?
The process where living organisms have to fight each other for limited recourses such as light or food.