Sunday, May 13, 2012

A term in physiology: piezolyte for an osmolyte whose cellular levels respond to hydrostatic and osmotic pressure

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The term piezolyte derives from the Greek roots piezo and lytos , referring to something squeezed under pressure and something that is s...
30 comments:
Saturday, May 12, 2012

A term in oceanography: “hadal zone” for deep-sea regions 6,000 meters below the surface

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The hadal zone is the deepest zone of the ocean layering scheme. It is part of the abyssal zone that begins at  3,000 m below the ocean su...
Thursday, May 10, 2012

Petri dish, named after German bacteriologist Richard Julius Petri

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Petri dishes were named by German microbiologist Robert Koch (1843-1910) for his assistant Julius Richard Petri (1852-1921), who invented...
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

A term in biology: hyperthermophile for an extremophile thriving above 60 °C

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The noun hyperthermophile is composed of the Greek words hyper ,  thermos and philos for “above,”    “hot” and “love,” respectively.  The...
Sunday, May 6, 2012

A term in biology: psychrophile for cold-temperature microbe

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The noun psychrophile refers to a cold-loving microorganism . This scientific term derives from the Greek words psychros and philos for “...
Saturday, May 5, 2012

A term in oceanography: brinicle for a salty ice stalactite

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The term brinicle immediately raises associations with the words brine and icicle : a brinicle looks like an icicle and forms in cold or i...
Monday, April 30, 2012

Tourmaline: a gemstone name with Singhalese roots

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The gemstone name tourmaline is though to derive form a Singhalese (Sinhalese, Cingalese) word or a variant thereof: turmali , tourmali , t...