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Signs of Life A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A Glossary and Acronyms
Pages 41-47

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From page 41...
... Appendixes
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From page 43...
... A large molecule having a repeating structural feature assembled by a living system from building blocks; proteins (built from amino acids) and DNA (built from nucleotides)
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From page 44...
... The gaseous samples are separated based on their differential adsorption to the stationary phase. Genomics The science that studies the entire genetic content of an organism.
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From page 45...
... , "organic" has come to mean "containing reduced carbon." Peptides Any of various natural or synthetic compounds containing two or more amino acids linked by the carboxyl group of one amino acid and the amino group of another. Phylogeny Ordering of species into higher taxa and the construction of evolutionary trees based on genetic relationships.
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From page 46...
... The reddish tar-like organic residue created in simulations of the action of ultraviolet radiation on gases typically found in planetary environments in the outer solar system. A microscopic volume defined by a boundary structure; examples include selfassembled vesicles bounded by a membranous lipid bilayer, and small cavities formed in volcanic rock by entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification.
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From page 47...
... MALDI Matrix assisted laser desorption and ionization; a way of elevating large molecules into the gas phase to permit their analysis in a mass spectrometer that involves embedding these in a matrix, and then putting energy into the matrix to sputter it and the molecule of interest into the "gas phase." MEN Most probable number. mRNA Messenger RNA.
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Key Terms

  • electron microscopy
  • mass spectrometry
  • amino acids
  • terrean organisms
  • stationary phase

  • scanning electron
  • organic matter
  • outer solar
  • rock substrates
  • formed organic

  • cell walls
  • hard rock
  • metaphase chromosomes
  • volcanic rock
  • chromosomes using

  • amorphous silica
  • ultraviolet radiation
  • laser scanning
  • selfassembled vesicles
  • using fluorescence

  • genetic relationships
  • organic residue
  • separated based
  • living protoplasm
  • automated cell

  • reduced carbon
  • cavities formed
  • gas phase
  • residue created
  • sedimentary rock


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