archaeology: (also archeology) The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains. Those remains can range from housing materials and cooking vessels to clothing and footprints. People who work in this field are known as archaeologists.
biology: The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.
carbon: A chemical element that is the physical basis of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is an important part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is capable of self-bonding, chemically, to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically and commercially important molecules.
data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of zeros and ones.
distort: (n. distortion) To change the shape or image of something in a way that makes it hard to recognize, or to change the perception or characterization of something (as to mislead).
field: An area of study, as in: Her field of research is biology. Also 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.
microscope: An instrument used to view objects — such as bacteria or the single cells of plants or animals — that are too small to be visible to the unaided eye.
mummy: A body preserved by natural processes or human technology, with some skin and organs remaining.
native: Associated with a particular location; native plants and animals have been found in a particular location since recorded history began. These species also tend to have developed within a region, occurring there naturally (not because they were planted or moved there by people). Most are particularly well adapted to their environment.
organic: (in chemistry) An adjective that indicates something is carbon-containing; also a term that relates to the basic chemicals that make up living organisms.
radiocarbon dating: Short for radioactive-carbon dating or simply carbon dating. A way to measure the age of organic materials — ones containing carbon. Carbon-14, a weakly radioactive isotope, forms in Earth’s upper atmosphere as cosmic rays hit nitrogen atoms. This carbon joins with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, which living organisms take up and incorporate in their tissues. When those organisms die, they stop exchanging carbon with the environment and the share of the carbon-14 isotope starts to fall at a constant rate (one set by the law of radioactive decay). By measuring the share of carbon-14 in the organism’s remains, scientists can determine how long ago it died.
shard: A piece of broken pottery, tile or rock, or a hard, broken piece of anything that has an irregular shape.
slide: In microscopy, the piece of glass onto which something will be attached for viewing under the device’s magnifying lens.
society: An integrated group of people or animals that generally cooperate and support one another for the greater good of them all.
statistics: The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities and interpreting their meaning. Much of this work involves reducing errors that might be attributable to random variation. A professional who works in this field is called a statistician.
tool: An object that a person or other animal makes or obtains and then uses to carry out some purpose such as reaching food, defending itself or grooming.
