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Ice core | a sample cylindrical section of the earth's strata beneath the surface of ice, obtained with a hollow drill |
Immutable | not capable of or susceptible to change |
Imperialism | the policy and practice of forming and maintaining an empire |
In situ | in position; in its original place |
Index fossils | fossils that identify and date the strata or succession of strata in which they are found |
Inerrancy | the state or quality of having no mistake; infallible |
Infanticide | the intentional killing of an infant or infants |
Inflationary universe | a particular stage in the Big Bang theory when the infinitesimal particle (cosmic egg) rapidly expanded to a grapefruit sized object and then into the universe |
Inheritance of acquired characteristics | theory that characteristics that are developed or gained by an individual can be transmitted to his offspring; this theory was popularized by Lamarck |
Inspiration | in theology, a divine influence upon human beings resulting in writing, as of the Scriptures |
Intelligentsia | collectively, the people regarded as, or regarding themselves as the intellectual or learned class |
Intron | a segment of DNA that is transcribed, but removed from within the transcript by splicing together the sequences (exons) on either side of it |
Isochron | A line on an isotope plot thought to represent rocks of equal age. |
Isomers | molecules that are formed from the same atoms in the same chemical linkages, but have different three-dimensional conformations |
Isotope | One of the forms of a chemical element that have the same number of protons in the nucleus, but a differing number of neutrons. Isotopes of the same element have differing atomic weights, allowing them to be distinguished by their weights. |
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Karst | a type of topography that is formed on limestone, gypsum, and other rocks by dissolution, and that is characterized by sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage |
Keel | in zoology, a ridge-like process |
Kepler's laws of Planetary motion | three laws that explain how planets move in orbit around the sun and how the gravity of other orbiting bodies affects them |
Kind | a generally interfertile group of organisms that possesses variant genes for a common set of traits but that does not interbreed with other groups of organisms under normal circumstances; A Biblical term, referring to a distinctive type of animal or plant which has remained genetically isolated since creation. God's plan was that every organism should produce "after his," or "after their kind." |
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Laissez faire capitalism | an economic doctrine that opposes government involvement in commerce |
Lamarckianism | in biology, the theory of organic evolution propounded by Lamarck, a distinguished French naturalist, early in the nineteenth century: it states that acquired characteristics can be inherited |
Lamina | A layer of sediment less than one centimeter thick. (pl. laminae) |
Law of Conservation | the 1st Law of Thermodynamics (the total quantity of matter and energy in the universe is constant) |
Law of decay | the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (matter and energy always tend to change from complex and ordered states to disordered states) |
Laws of Electromagnetism (Maxwell's equation) | international unit of magnetic flux, equal to the flux through one square centimeter normal to a magnetic field with an intensity of one gauss |
Leaching | to lose soluble matter as a result of the filtering through of water |
Left- and right- handed amino acids | chiral amino acids; optical isomers; amino acids that have the same molecules, but in reverse orientations |
Leninism | the political theories of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 - 1924), especially the methods and tactics which he taught and carried through during and after the October Revolution in Russia. These practical policies are founded upon Marxism and dialectic materialism. The central part of Lenin's theories was the dictatorship of the Proletariat, springing from the hegemony of the working class. The New Economic Policy (NEP) instituted under his guidance was, he taught, a step forward toward a socialist Russia |
Levant | the regions on the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean from Greece to Egypt, including Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine |
Leviathan | a large and powerful aquatic animal described in Job and mentioned in other passages of Scripture |
Light year (LY) | the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year; 1 LY = 9.46 X 1015 meters |
Lithology | the science which deals with the mineral constituents and stratigraphical arrangements of rocks |
Lithosphere | the upper layer of the Earth, to a depth of 50 to 100 km, involved in plate tectonics |
Living fossils | fossils which have living representatives in the world today |
Lizard-hipped | any dinosaur that has a pelvis in which all the bones are oriented in different directions (as in lizard pelvises) |
Local flood theory | the theory that the Flood of Noah's time as recorded in Genesis was not global, but was only in the area where Noah lived |
Local Group | the cluster of galaxies to which our galaxy belongs |
Loess | a fine- grained, yellowish- brown, extremely fertile loam deposited by the winds |
Long-period comet | a comet that orbits the sun once every two hundred years or more |
Lungfish | a fish having both lungs and gills; a dipnoan; also called a mudfish |
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