Term | Definition |
Biogenesis | The scientific principal that living organisms come only from other living organisms. |
Spontaneous generation | An early and now disproved theory that living organisms come to life spontaneously from nonliving material. |
Radiometric Dating | A method of determining the absolute age of an object by comparing the relative percentages of a radioactive isotope and a stable isotope. |
Isotope | An atom that has the same number of protons as other atoms of the same element do but that has a different number of neutrons. |
Mass Number | The sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. |
Radioactive Decay | The disintegration of an unstable atomic nucleus into one or more different nuclides, accomplished by the emission of radiation, the nuclear capture or ejection of electrons, or fission. |
Radioactive Isotope | An isotope that has an unstable nucleus and that emits radiation. |
Half-life | The time required for half of a sample of radioactive isotope to break down by radioactive decay to form a daughter isotope. |
Microsphere | A microscopic spherical structure composed of many proteins. |
Coacervate | A mass of droplets of colloidal substances, such as lipids, amino acids, and sugars, that are held together by electrostatic attraction. |
Ribozyme | A type of RNA that can react as an enzyme. |
Archaea | In a modern taxonomic system, a domain made up of prokaryotes that can live in extreme environments & that are differentiates from other prokaryotes by various important chemical differences; this domain aligns with the traditional kingdom Archaebacteria |
Chemosynthesis | The production of carbohydrates through the use of energy from inorganic molecules instead of light. |
Cyanobacteria | A group of bacteria that can carry out photosynthesis: formally called blue-green algae. |
Ozone | A gas molecules that is made up of three oxygen atoms. |
Endosymbiosis | A mutually beneficial relationship in which one organism lives within another: a theory that eukaryotic cells originated through endosymbiotic relationships between ancient prokaryotic cells. |