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100 Science Words Every College Graduate Should Know by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries

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About the Book



The latest title in the best-selling 100 Words series, 100 Science Words Every College Graduate Should Know (Houghton Mifflin, April 5, 2006), provides simple answers to these and dozens of other questions about the fundamental concepts of science and technology.



Almost every day there are new facts and ideas discussed in the media about the makeup of the universe, the roles genes play in disease, the dangers of sweeping environmental change, and countless other things. People who are unfamiliar with the key words of science may not be able to fathom the rapid advances and developments taking place around them  even when they hit close to home.



Are you up to the challenge? Find out by reading 100 Science Words Every College Graduate Should Know, by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries. A wide variety of new and established terms are discussed, including absolute zero, anaphylaxis, cryptography, echolocation, game theory, Kuiper belt, mitochondrion, Munchausen syndrome, quantum mechanics, and refraction. Each term is defined in clear, nontechnical language, with examples showing the importance of the word both in its field and in daily life.



This book will appeal not only to college graduates, but to anyone with an interest in scientific concepts and the latest breakthroughs in the news.



The following is the entire list of 100 words:



absolute zero

agoraphobia

alga

algorithm

allele

alternating current

amygdala

anaphylaxis

angiogenesis

apoptosis

archaeon

artesian well

ATP

bandwidth

Beringia

big bang

black hole

Brownian motion

Cambrian Explosion

capacitor

carbon sequestration

centripetal force

chemosynthesis

cognitive dissonance

complementarity

cryptography

cyanobacterium

cyclone

dendrochronology

echolocation

endorphin

estivation

eutrophication

Fibonacci sequence

fission

fundamental force

game theory

genome

gluon

heliocentrism

histone

hominin

hypha

imaginary number

interferon

ischemia

isomer

junk DNA

krill

KT boundary

Kuiper belt

kwashiorkor

logic gate

magnetosphere

megabyte

melanoma

mitochondrion

monotreme

monsoon

Munchausen syndrome

nanotube

Neanderthal

nosocomial infection

obligate

orbital

pahoehoe

Pavlovian

phenotype

pheromone

photoelectric

photon

piezoelectric effect

placebo

prion

prophylaxis

protein folding

protolanguage

quantum mechanics

radiometric dating

rain shadow

refraction

REM sleep

retrovirus

roentgenium

sex

sociobiology

solar wind

superposition

telomere

teratogen

theory

tidal force

time dilation

Universal Time

urea

vestigial

wave function

xerophyte

yolk

zero

How do bats "see" in the dark? Why do ocean waves break parallel to the shore, no matter what direction they come from? What is the psychiatric disorder whereby people feign illness in order to gain medical attention? How do online stores keep credit card numbers secret from hackers?The latest title in the best-selling 100 Words series,(Houghton Mifflin, April 5, 2006), provides simple answers to these and dozens of other questions about the fundamental concepts of science and technology.Almost every day there are new facts and ideas discussed in the media about the makeup of the universe, the roles genes play in disease, the dangers of sweeping environmental change, and countless other things. People who are unfamiliar with the key words of science may not be able to fathom the rapid advances and developments taking place around them  even when they hit close to home.Are you up to the challenge? Find out by reading, by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries. A wide variety of new and established terms are discussed, including, and. Each term is defined in clear, nontechnical language, with examples showing the importance of the word both in its field and in daily life.This book will appeal not only to college graduates, but to anyone with an interest in scientific concepts and the latest breakthroughs in the news.The following is the entire list of 100 words:



