algorithm: A group of rules or procedures for solving a problem in a series of steps. Algorithms are used in mathematics and in computer programs for figuring out solutions.
audible: Something that can be heard, usually with ears or other sound-sensing structures.
audio: Having to do with sound.
concave: A term for the shape of a surface that is rounded somewhat, like the inside of a bowl.
convex: A surface that possesses a shape that is rounded outward.
electricity: A flow of charge, usually from the movement of negatively charged particles, called electrons.
environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).
field: A term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.
flex: To bend without breaking. A material with this property is described as flexible.
glass: A hard, brittle substance made from silica, a mineral found in sand. Glass usually is transparent and fairly inert (chemically nonreactive). Aquatic organisms called diatoms build their shells of it.
heart rate: Heart beat; the number of times per minute that the heart — a pump — contracts, moving blood throughout the body.
internet: An electronic communications network. It allows computers anywhere in the world to link into other networks to find information, download files and share data (including pictures).
molecule: A group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in air is made of two bound oxygen atoms (O2). Water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O).
optical: An adjective that refers to light or vision.
physicist: A scientist who studies the nature and properties of matter and energy.
pixel: Short for picture element. A tiny area of illumination on a computer screen, or a dot on a printed page, usually placed in an array to form a digital image. Photographs are made of thousands of pixels, each of different brightness and color, and each too small to be seen unless the image is magnified.
preliminary: An early step or stage that precedes something more important.
sensor: A device that picks up information on physical or chemical conditions — such as temperature, barometric pressure, salinity, humidity, pH, light intensity or radiation — and stores or broadcasts that information. Scientists and engineers often rely on sensors to inform them of conditions that may change over time or that exist far from where a researcher can measure them directly. (in biology) The structure that an organism uses to sense attributes of its environment, such as heat, winds, chemicals, moisture, trauma or an attack by predators.
sound wave: A wave that transmits sound. Sound waves have alternating swaths of high and low pressure.
technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.
transmit: (n. transmission) To send or pass along.
wavelength: The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. It’s also one of the “yardsticks” used to measure radiation. Visible light — which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves — includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.