Molecular evolutionMolecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genetics to explain patterns in these changes. Major topics in molecular evolution concern the rates and impacts of single nucleotide changes, neutral evolution vs. natural selection, origins of new genes, the genetic nature of complex traits, the genetic basis of speciation, the evolution of development, and ways that evolutionary forces influence genomic and phenotypic changes.
Energy levelA quantum mechanical system or particle that is bound—that is, confined spatially—can only take on certain discrete values of energy, called energy levels. This contrasts with classical particles, which can have any amount of energy. The term is commonly used for the energy levels of the electrons in atoms, ions, or molecules, which are bound by the electric field of the nucleus, but can also refer to energy levels of nuclei or vibrational or rotational energy levels in molecules.
Circumscribed sphereIn geometry, a circumscribed sphere of a polyhedron is a sphere that contains the polyhedron and touches each of the polyhedron's vertices. The word circumsphere is sometimes used to mean the same thing, by analogy with the term circumcircle. As in the case of two-dimensional circumscribed circles (circumcircles), the radius of a sphere circumscribed around a polyhedron P is called the circumradius of P, and the center point of this sphere is called the circumcenter of P.
Configuration (polytope)In geometry, H. S. M. Coxeter called a regular polytope a special kind of configuration. Other configurations in geometry are something different. These polytope configurations may be more accurately called incidence matrices, where like elements are collected together in rows and columns. Regular polytopes will have one row and column per k-face element, while other polytopes will have one row and column for each k-face type by their symmetry classes.
Ion transport numberIn chemistry, ion transport number, also called the transference number, is the fraction of the total electric current carried in an electrolyte by a given ionic species i: Differences in transport number arise from differences in electrical mobility. For example, in an aqueous solution of sodium chloride, less than half of the current is carried by the positively charged sodium ions (cations) and more than half is carried by the negatively charged chloride ions (anions) because the chloride ions are able to move faster, i.
