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F

Factor label - A unit conversion process.
Facultative anaerobes - Bacteria that can live with or without atmospheric oxygen.
Fahrenheit - The temperature scale in every-day use in the United States.
Family of elements - A group of elements with similar characteristics, usually determined by the number of electrons in the outer electron energy level.
Faraday's Laws - Two laws related to electrolysis reactions.
Farsighted - The eyeball is too thin, causing the image to focus behind the retina; a person can see distant objects clearly, but has difficulty with near objects.
Fatty acid - An unbranched carbon chain with the carboxyl group at one end that combines to make lipids.
Feathers - Provide insulation and lift for flight in birds.
Fermentation - The breaking down of pyruvic acid without using molecular oxygen.
Fermions - A group of subatomic particles including quarks and leptons.
Ferns - Vascular plants that reproduce sexually by forming spores, not seeds.
Fertilization - The joining of sperm and egg in sexual reproduction.
Fetus - An embryo developed to the point that it begins to resemble the mature organism.
Fiber optics - The transfer of light through long, thin, flexible optical fibers by total internal reflection.
Fibrinogen - A soluble protein in blood that reacts with thrombin to form fibrin for clotting.
Fire blanket - A fire-resistant blanket used to extinguish buring clothing.
Fire extinguisher - A portable device used to put out small fires.
Fission - A nuclear reaction in which a very heavy nucleus is split into fragments.
Flagella - Long protein structures that turn to propel some single-cell organisms.
Flammable - A substance that is easily ignited and continues to burn after the source of ignition is removed.
Flash Point - The minimum temperature at which a substance produces enough vapor to be ignited.
Flask - One of several types of pear-shaped pieces of glassware used to contain chemical reactions in the lab.
Fleshy fruit - A fruit with soft, usually moist walls.
Flicker-fusion - The number of frames per second at which sequential images are no longer seen as separate.
Floral formula - A way of representing the structure of a flower using letters, numbers, and symbols.
Flower - A plant organ of sexual reproduction.
Fluorescent light - Electricity causes phosphors inside a glass tube to glow.
Fluid - Any substance that flows; liquids and gases.
Focal point - The point at which light rays come together after passing through a convex lens.
Follicle - A dry fruit with 1 carpel that splits along only one side when ripe.
Food chain - The specific sequence in which organisms obtain energy within an ecosystem.
Food web - Interrelated food chains within an ecosystem.
Forb - Herbaceous flowering plants with broad leaves.
Force - Any push or pull which causes motion.
Forces of nature - The four forces known to operate between elementary particles.
Formula mass - The sum of all the atomic masses in a chemical formula.
Fosssil - Any trace of a long-dead organism.
Fosssil fuel - Fuel made from the remains of long-dead organisms.
Frame-shift mutation - The addition or deletion of a nitrogen base, causing the gene sequence to read out of order.
Frasch process - The physical process used to mine sulfur.
Fraternal twins - Formed from two egg cells fertilized by two sperm cells.
Freezing - Changing a liquid into a solid.
Freezing point depression - The addition of a nonvolatile solute making a solution freeze at a lower temperature than the pure solvent.
Frequency - The number of complete waves passing a point in a given period of time.
Friction - A force that opposes motion.
Frond - A fern leaf.
Frontal lobe - Part of the brain involved in reasoning, speech, movement, and emotions.
Fruit - A ripened ovary with seeds.
Fruticose - Shrubby stems that are woody more or less throughout and commonly have several main stems but no main trunk.
Fulcrum - The point around which a lever moves.
Fume hood - A safety glass-front cabinet with an exhaust fan.
Functional group - The non-hydrocarbon part of an organic molecule.
Funiculus - The stalk attaching a seed to the plant fruit placenta.
Fuse - An emergency swith containing a wire that will melt when too much current flows.
Fusion - A nuclear reaction in which two or more small nuclei are forced together to form one larger nucleus.

Galaxy - A large aggregate of gravitationally bound stars, plus an interstellar medium of gas and dust.
Galvanometer - An instrument for detecting electric current.
Gamete - A sex cell, either sperm or egg.
Ganglion - A mass of nerve cells outside the central nervous system.
Gas - A substance whose particles have enough kinetic energy to break all intermolecular forces of attraction.
Gas Laws - Calculations used to describe the characteristics of a gas as conditions change.
Gastrulation - The specialization of embryo cells forming the three germ layers found in all vertebrates.
Gene - A segment of DNA on a chromosome that controls a particular trait.
Gene flow - The process of genes moving from one population to another.
Gene mutation - A mutation involving a nitrogen base in DNA.
Gene pool - Refers to all the genes that can be shared by reproduction within a population.
Generator - A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Gene therapy - Treating a genetic disorder by introducing a gene into a cell or by correcting a defect in a cell's genome.
Genetic drift - The changing of allele frequencies in a population.
Genetic engineering - The application of molecular genetics for practical purposes.
Genetic equilibrium - Allele frequencies in a population do not change from generation to generation.
Genetics - The study of the traits of organisms.
Genotype - The genetic makeup of an organism.
Germination - When a seed begins to grow into a new plant.
Germ layers - The layers of specialized tissues found in multicellular organisms.
Germ mutation - A mutation in gametes.
Gestation period - The period of development in the placenta.
Gibberellins - A group of plant hormones that primarily stimulate elongation growth.
Gibbs Free Energy - A comparison of the changes of enthalpy and entropy during a chemical reaction; the chemical potential of a substance.
Gills - External tissue rich with blood vessels to exchange gases with the water.
Gizzard - A muscular organ in the digestive system of some animals that grinds food.
Glottis - A slit-like opening from the throat to the lungs.
Glucose - The product of photosynthesis, C₆H₁₂O₆, that stores the sun's energy in chemical form.
Gluons - Particles exchanged between quarks to bond them together.
Glycolysis - A cellular process that splits the 6-carbon glucose molecule into two 3-carbon pyruvic acid molecules and 2 ATP molecules.
Golgi apparatus - A stack of membranes or sacs that acts to prepare substances for export from a cell.
GPE - Gravitational potential energy.
Graduated cylindar - The basic piece of glassware use to measure the volume of liquids.
Graham's Law - The relative rates at which two gases diffuse under identical conditions vary inversely as the squareroots of their molecular masses.
Gram stain - A special way of staining bacteria cells to determine the effectiveness of antibiotics on them.
Grand Unified Theory (GUT) - Any gauge theory that attempts to combine the description of the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force in one mathematical package.
Granum - The complex network of stacked sacs found inside chloroplasts.
Graph - A way to visually represent data.
Gravitational water - Water that drains freely through the largest pores in the soil.
Graviton - The gravity force carrying particle.
Gravitropism - A plant growth response to gravity.
Gravity - The force of attraction between all objects in the universe; the weakest of the known natural forces.
Gray - An amount of radiation equal to the transfer of one joule of energy to one kilogram of living tissue.
Gray matter - Nerve cell bodies in the brain.
Group - A vertical column on the Periodic Table; family.
Guanine - One of two double carbon ring nitrogen bases in DNA.
Guard cells - Two specialized epidermal cells which open and close a stomata pore.
Gymnosperms - Seed plants that produce cones instead of flowers.
Gynandrous - A flower whose stamens are attached to the pistil.