General Biology
acid
An ____ is a chemical substance, usually a liquid, which contains hydrogen and can react with other substances to form salts. Some acids burn or dissolve other substances that they come into contact with.
lactic acid
______ ____ is a type of acid which is found in sour milk and is also produced by your muscles when you have been exercising a lot.
fermentation
to experience a chemical change because of the action of yeast or bacteria, often changing sugar to alcohol; to make something change in this way
allele
Also called: allelomorph. any of two or more variants of a gene that have the same relative position on homologous chromosomes and are responsible for alternative characteristics, such as smooth or wrinkled seeds in peas
analogy
If you make or draw an _______ between two things, you show that they are similar in some way.
analysis
________ is the process of considering something carefully or using statistical methods in order to understand it or explain it.
Golgi apparatus
The _____ _________, also known as the Golgi complex, Golgi body, or simply the Golgi, is an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. It was identified in 1897 by the Italian physician Camillo Golgi and named after him in 1898. Part of the cellular endomembrane system, the _____ _________ packages proteins inside the cell before they are sent to their destination; it is particularly important in the processing of proteins for secretion.
benefit
The _______ of something is the help that you get from it or the advantage that results from it.
biological
__________ is used to describe processes and states that occur in the bodies and cells of living things.
bond
A ____ between people is a strong feeling of friendship, love, or shared beliefs and experiences that unites them.
covalent bond
A ________ ____ is the chemical bond that involves the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms.
cancer
______ is a serious disease in which cells in a person's body increase rapidly in an uncontrolled way, producing abnormal growths.
embryonic
An _________ process, idea, organization, or organism is one at a very early stage in its development.
cell
A ____ is the smallest part of an animal or plant that is able to function independently. Every animal or plant is made up of millions of ____s.
chloroplast
a plastid containing chlorophyll and other pigments, occurring in plants and algae that carry out photosynthesis
Calvin cycle
a series of reactions, occurring during photosynthesis, in which glucose is synthesized from carbon dioxide
chromosome
A __________ is a part of a cell in an animal or plant. It contains genes which determine what characteristics the animal or plant will have.
clon
a plant or an animal that is produced naturally or artificially from the cells of another plant or animal and is therefore exactly the same as it
complex
Something that is _______ has many different parts, and is therefore often difficult to understand.
semiconservative replication
____________ _________ describes the mechanism by which DNA is replicated in all known cells.
cellular respiration
_________ __________ is the set of the metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products.
membrane
A __________ is a thin piece of skin which connects or covers parts of a person's or animal's body.
facilitated diffusion
________ _________ (also known as facilitated transport or passive-mediated transport) is a process of passive transport (as opposed to active transport), with this passive transport aided by integral membrane proteins.
disease
A _______is an illness which affects people, animals, or plants, for example one which is caused by bacteria or infection.
trivialize
If you say that someone ________s something important, you disapprove of them because they make it seem less important, serious, and complex than it is.
energy
______ is the ability and strength to do active physical things and the feeling that you are full of physical power and life.
envelope
An ________ is the rectangular paper cover in which you send a letter to someone through the post.
nuclear envelope
A nuclear membrane, also known as the ______ _______, nucleolemma or karyotheca, is the double lipid bilayer membrane which surrounds the genetic material and nucleolus in eukaryotic cells. The nuclear membrane consists of two lipid bilayers—the inner nuclear membrane, and the outer nuclear membrane. The space between the membranes is called the perinuclear space, a region contiguous with the lumen (inside) of the endoplasmic reticulum. It is typically about 20-40 nm wide.
environment
Someone's __________ is all the circumstances, people, things, and events around them that influence their life.
enzyme
An ______ is a chemical substance that is found in living creatures which produces changes in other substances without being changed itself.
restriction enzyme
any of several enzymes produced by bacteria as a defence against viral infection and commonly used to cut DNA for genetic manipulation or diagnosis
evolution
________ is a process of gradual change that takes place over many generations, during which species of animals, plants, or insects slowly change some of their physical characteristics.
receptor
________s are nerve endings in your body which react to changes and stimuli and make your body respond in a particular way.
mating type
______ _____ are molecular mechanisms that regulate compatibility in sexually reproducing eukaryotes. They occur in isogamous and anisogamous species. Depending on the group, different mating types are often referred to by numbers, letters, or simply "+" and "-" instead of "male" and "female", that refer "sexes" or differences in size between gametes.
function
The ________ of something or someone is the useful thing that they do or are intended to do.
gamete
______ is the name for the two types of male and female cell that join together to make a new creature.
segregation
________ is the official practice of keeping people apart, usually people of different sexes, races, or religions.
fertilization
to put pollen into a plant so that a seed develops; to join sperm with an egg so that a baby or young animal develops
gene
A ____ is the part of a cell in a living thing which controls its physical characteristics, growth, and development.
gene expression
____ __________ is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product. Several steps in the gene expression process may be modulated, including the transcription, RNA splicing, translation, and post-translational modification of a protein.
lipid
any of a large group of organic compounds that are esters of fatty acids (simple lipids, such as fats and waxes) or closely related substances (compound lipids, such as phospholipids): usually insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol and other organic solvents. They are important structural materials in living organisms
meiosis
a type of cell division in which a nucleus divides into four daughter nuclei, each containing half the chromosome number of the parent nucleus: occurs in all sexually reproducing organisms in which haploid gametes or spores are produced
membrane
A _________ is a thin piece of skin which connects or covers parts of a person's or animal's body.
mitosis
a method of cell division, in which the nucleus divides into daughter nuclei, each containing the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus
organism
An ________ is an animal or plant, especially one that is so small that you cannot see it without using a microscope.
overall
You use _______ to indicate that you are talking about a situation in general or about the whole of something.
oxygen
_______ is a colorless gas that exists in large quantities in the air. All plants and animals need ______ in order to live.
phosphorylation
the chemical or enzymic introduction into a compound of a phosphoryl group (a trivalent radical of phosphorus and oxygen)
plasmid
a small circle of bacterial DNA that is independent of the main bacterial chromosome. ______s often contain genes for drug resistances and can be transmitted between bacteria of the same and different species: used in genetic engineering
polypeptide
any of a group of natural or synthetic polymers made up of amino acids chemically linked together; this class includes the proteins
potential
You use ________ to say that someone or something is capable of developing into the particular kind of person or thing mentioned.
process
A _______ is a series of actions which are carried out in order to achieve a particular result.
profiling
the practice of categorizing people and predicting their behavior according to particular characteristics such as race or age
protein
_______ is a substance found in food and drink such as meat, eggs, and milk. You need protein in order to grow and be healthy.
reaction
Your _______ to something that has happened or something that you have experienced is what you feel, say, or do because of it.
regulation
_________s are rules made by a government or other authority in order to control the way something is done or the way people behave.
gene regulation
Regulation of gene expression includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA), and is informally termed ____ __________.
sequence
A _________ of events or things is a number of events or things that come one after another in a particular order.
signal
A ______ is a gesture, sound, or action which is intended to give a particular message to the person who sees or hears it.
similar
If one thing is _______ to another, or if two things are _______, they have features that are the same.
site
A ____ is a piece of ground that is used for a particular purpose or where a particular thing happens.
active site
In biology, the _______ _____ is the small portion of an enzyme where substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction.
cytoplasm
the protoplasm of a cell contained within the cell membrane but excluding the nucleus: contains organelles, vesicles, and other inclusions
translation
A ___________ is a piece of writing or speech that has been translated from a different language.