Some Light Physics
Anything that has mass and takes up space.
What is matter?
What is an atom?
"The power house of the cell." (C'mon, you knew I had to ask that...)
What is the mitochondrion (or what are mitochondria)?
A gross dude named Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was shocked to discover single-celled creatures when he looked at his teeth plaque under a light microscope. He called the critters "animalcules." We call them this instead.
What are bacteria?
The energy from light is used in photosynthesis to excite these moving, negatively charged particles.
What are electrons?
The ability to do work.
What is energy?
The same name for the center of a cell and the much much tinier center of an atom.
What is the nucleus?
A cell's nucleus contains this complex of DNA and proteins.
What is chromatin?
Literally means "before nucleus" and includes all bacteria.
What are prokaryotes?
This byproduct - or waste product - of photosynthesis isn't a waste product for us. We would die in minutes without it!
What is oxygen?
This type of energy describes things in motion.
What is kinetic energy?
This molecule is the fuel we use to power our cells.
What is ATP? (Adenosine Triphosphate)
This is the cell's Fed-Ex carrier. It sorts and ships newly made proteins to where they are needed, be it inside or outside the cell.
What is the Golgi Apparatus?
This term refers to organisms that make their own food via photosynthesis.
What are autotrophs?
This is the location of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis.
What is the thylakoid?
An object resting atop a shelf has this kind of energy.
What is potential energy?
This measures the distance from crest to crest in a wave. Within the visible light spectrum, violet is the shortest, red the longest.
What is wavelength?
This organelle will break down malfunctioning organelles and can even trigger the cell's death if the cell is infected.
What are lysosomes?
This word describes a natural process in which a substance will move from higher concentration to lower concentration, thus requiring no energy to do so.
This is the location of the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis.
What is the stroma?
This is the kind of energy stored in the bonds between atoms.
What is chemical energy?
Trees do not really "change" their colors in the fall. Instead, as the plants break down all of the chlorophyll pigments, we can now see these pigments instead.
What are carotenoids?
These are little factories that convert an mRNA blueprint into a protein. They reside on the rough endoplasmic reticulum (hence why they are called "rough") and in the cytoplasm.
What are ribosomes?
The definition of this word is found in the word itself - it is the substance that makes up all cell membranes. Fatty on the inside, charged on the outside.
What is the phospholipid bilayer?
In addition to ATP, the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis create this energy-carrying molecule by providing an electron to allow its precursor to join with a proton.
What is NADPH?