Biology Stack Exchange
Biology Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [terminology]

How terms are used or the meaning of words as used in scientific literature. Questions should ideally include a link or quote as context for where the term was encountered.

Questions should be specific to biology, with discussion on the biological aspects of terminology and advice on specialist terminology. Some questions may be better suited for English Language and Usage.

549 questions
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Is there an acceptable term for 'male fox' other than 'dog'?

I'm writing a lab on sexual dimorphism in Arctic foxes. As such, I use the words 'dog' and 'vixen' fairly often. In the discussion section, I compare the results from the lab with the results from research on other animals. The most relevant…
Hal
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Why sister chromatids and daughter cells but not brother chromatids and son cells?

In biology, why do we have terminologies in terms of female relatoinships such as daughter cells and sister chromatids and not in terms of male relationships. When did this custom started and is there a reason for it ?
DKangeyan
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What does "DS" stand for in some articles?

I'm super ashamed of asking such a question, but there is an abbreviation that often comes in some papers that I have to read, I have no idea what it stands for and I'm just too ashamed to ask my colleagues... so here I am on the internet to try to…
Natad
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What is a "fairy smile"?

From Hrdy and Burkart (2020): At birth, both chimpanzee and human newborns seek out eyes, are capable of mutual gazing, and caught just right, may imitate someone else’s outstretched tongue or other facial expressions. Both species exhibit…
user60372
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What does the point in the middle between two numbers mean?

[...] cells were removed to a cover glass and treated with plasma for 2 min, then returned to TS broth and centrifuged for 10 min. Cells were harvested and washed twice with PBS, then mixed with tryptic soy agar. The agar block was fixed with 2·5%…
serge
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Difference between Bioscience and Lifescience

Are bioscience and lifescience the same things? I am a little bit confused about it. If not, then what is the difference between the two?
Abdullah
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Is there a term for the group of individual organisms whose matrilineally descended female ancestors all share a common ancestor?

A group of individual organisms that are all descended from a common ancestor is a clade. Is there a term for a group of individuals whose matrilineally descended ancestors (mothers, maternal grandmothers, maternal grandmothers' mothers, etc.) are…
user40471
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What does "substoichiometric amounts" mean in the context of molecular biology?

Recent paper: PRC2 is composed of the histone methyltransferase EZH2, EED, SUZ12, and the histone binding proteins RBBP4 and RBBP7. JARID2, AEBP2, PHF1, MTF2, and PHF19 are also present in PRC2 in substoichiometric amounts. Does this have a…
The Unfun Cat
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Difference between "wash" and "rinse" in biotechnological procedure descriptions

Is there a difference between "rinse" and "wash" in sentences like this: Following the staining, the sections were washed twice with deionized water, then dehydrated using ethanol solutions of incrementally increasing concentration (70%, 80%, 96%),…
CopperKettle
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What do we call these containers used in biotechnology?

I'm translating an autoclave instruction from Russian, and it says that these containers (ванночки) (see the black circle on the below photo) are to be sterilized in the autoclave. I'm not sure what they are called in English-language biotech texts.…
CopperKettle
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Difference between pipette and pipettor

I've been translating a text listing some analytical laboratory equipment, and found that some fellow translators translate the Russian word "автоматическая пипетка" (avtomaticheskaya pipetka, which literally means "automatic pipette") as…
CopperKettle
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Optical density machine name

What is the name of the machine used to measure optical density? We used it in a lab but I can't remember what they called it.
Delimit04
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What would be a single elegant-sounding word denoting controlled increase or decrease?

I am a biologist and frequently encounter the words 'upregulated' and 'downregulated' in the literature. Appropriately, these words are flagged by my browser spell-checker; they don't seem to be very widely recognized outside of the biology…
njspix
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Understanding the use of English tenses in biological journal articles

My colleague and I (second language speakers) got in an argument in understanding the sentence: " however, how this complexity and diversification have been achieved remains rather poorly understood.” in the context of the below Abstract’s…
A.Qatar
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Why is the "mango fly" called a "mango fly"?

Cordylobia anthropophaga, the mango fly, tumbu fly, tumba fly, putzi fly, or skin maggot fly, is a species of blow-fly common in East and Central Africa. Wiki page Why is Cordylobia anthropophaga among other names called the mango fly? I can't…
Tom Sol
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