Biology key terms

A gaseous plant hormone that controls fruit ripening.

A question about what ought to be done, based on values, rights, responsibilities and ideas of acceptable treatment.

A judgement about whether an action is right or acceptable, considering effects such as welfare, consent, fairness and environmental harm.

A question about whether an action and its consequences are morally right or wrong.

Questions and reasoned judgements about whether an action is right or wrong.

A question about whether an action or its consequences are right or wrong; answering it involves values as well as facts.

One of the three domains; it contains organisms whose cells have genetic material enclosed within a nucleus.

An organism whose cells contain a nucleus and other membrane-bound structures.

A cell whose genetic material is enclosed within a nucleus; animal and plant cells are eukaryotic.

The enrichment of water by mineral ions, often from fertiliser, which can cause an algal bloom and a fall in dissolved oxygen.

The change of liquid water into water vapour.

An observation or measurement used to assess an explanation or prediction.

A change in the inherited characteristics of a population over generations.

A branching diagram showing scientists' interpretation of the evolutionary relationships between organisms.

Movement of substances into and out of an organism or its cells across a surface.

A surface across which substances move between an organism and its surroundings, or between different parts of an organism.

The removal from an organism of waste products made by its metabolism, such as urea.

A chemical process that transfers energy from the reacting system to its surroundings.

A reaction that transfers energy to the surroundings.

The overall plan for collecting data to answer a scientific question, including what is changed, measured and kept constant.

A small piece of tissue removed from a plant and used to start a tissue culture.

An increase in which the population is multiplied by the same factor during each equal time interval.

Describes a species with no living members.

The permanent loss of a species after all its members have died.

An enzyme released from a cell that breaks down substances outside that cell.

Estimating a value beyond the range covered by measured data, by extending a graph’s trend.

A habitat in which conditions such as water availability, temperature or light make survival particularly difficult.