Scientists Say

A weekly word defined, in a sentence and in context.

  1. Ecosystems

    Scientists Say: Vector

    Vectors are used to transfer things. Sometimes the transferred item is a disease, but scientists can also use vectors to insert helpful genes.

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  2. Physics

    Scientists Say: Frequency

    The distance between one wave peak and another is wavelength. But how fast those peaks are moving along is frequency.

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  3. Physics

    Scientists Say: Yottawatt

    On Earth, scientists measure energy use in watts. When you have lot of those watts — one million billion billion — you have a yottawatt.

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  4. Physics

    Scientists Say: Wavelength

    When something travels as a wave — such as light — scientists can measure it by its wavelength, the distances between the peaks.

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  5. Physics

    Scientists Say: Watt

    Say Watt? This is a unit used to measure the flow of energy being used.

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  6. Math

    Scientists Say: Y-axis

    The bars on a graph tell you nothing unless you know what they mean. The lines on the sides can let you know.

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  7. Life

    Scientists Say: Yeast

    For some people, yeast bring to mind slimy infections. But these little fungal beasts are used to make bread rise, too.

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  8. Math

    Scientists Say: X-axis

    The bars on a graph tell you nothing unless you know what they mean. The lines on the sides can let you know.

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  9. Physics

    Scientists Say: Kinetic energy

    This is energy that an object has when it is in motion.

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  10. Scientists Say: Replication

    A scientist can run an experiment and get a result. But that result won’t be truly trustworthy until other scientists rerun the tests and replicate the findings.

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  11. Physics

    Scientists Say: Potential energy

    This is the energy an object has because of its position or condition.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Zika

    Zika virus has burst into the news because it is linked with microcephaly — a condition where babies are born with small heads.

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