Science Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Science, research, scientific disciplines. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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conehead n. People joke about the lab guys being coneheads—people who are all brains and live with a computer and that’s it. [English Science] [full cite] (Aug. 9, 2005)

conehead n. Many Northern New Mexicans hired to do the construction and upkeep have tales about “coneheads” keeping ’em at bay when they show up to perform carpentry, plumbing or electrification jobs. [English Science] [full cite] (Aug. 9, 2005)

conehead n. Conehead. This has nothing to do with the space-alien routine made famous on Saturday Night Live. In Los Alamos, it means scientist, stemming from the unflattering “pointy-headed”—meaning too intellectual. Somehow, the folks at the lab have turned it into a badge of honor. They might say of someone whose intellect is in doubt, “His cone isn’t all that sharp.” [English Science] [full cite] (Aug. 9, 2005)

conehead n. Bingham, a biochemist at Clarkson University, is a self- described “conehead” whose livelihood depends on scuba diving for tropical marine cone snails and coaxing them to discharge their venom in his laboratory. [English Science] [full cite] (Aug. 9, 2005)

conehead n. The U.S. government’s CIA-like “Office of Investigations”…proceeds to form the elite- but-unorthodox C.A.T. (Counter Assault Tactical) Squad, rather than going with the usual operatives (“a bunch of Ivy League coneheads spinning their wheels all over the world”). [English Science] [full cite] (Aug. 9, 2005)

connectome n. Much better accuracy will be required before researchers can build automated systems for finding “connectomes,” complete maps of connections in a brain or a piece of a brain. [English Biology Body Science] [full cite] (Nov. 11, 2008)

counterspace n. As part of on-going work in seek-and-hit space warfare—termed “counterspace” in military parlance, China is expected to continue to enhance its satellite tracking and identification network. [English Military Science] [full cite] (May. 31, 2004)

cryoturbation adj. Temperatures are so low that when tree and grasses die they do not fully decompose. New plants grow out of the half-rotted old ones, and when these plants die the same thing happens all over again. Eventually, through a process known as cryoturbation, organic matter is pushed down beneath the active layer into the permafrost, where it can sit for thousands of years in a botanical version of suspended animation. [English Science Jargon] [full cite] (Apr. 25, 2005)

crypsis n. Animals can remain concealed when their overall coloration (box 1) resembles or matches the natural background of their environment (Endler 1978). This phenomenon, also known as general color resemblance, includes crypsis (a type of camouflage), in which overall body color resembles the general color of the habitat, or pattern blending, in which color patterns on the body match patterns of light and dark in the environment. [English Biology Science Jargon] [full cite] (Feb. 24, 2005)

cryptid n. Cryptozoology is the study of a hidden or unknown animal as yet classified or verified by zoologists. A cryptozoologist is a person who studies these cryptids. [ Language English Subject Animals, Insects, & Birds Science] [full cite] (Oct. 31, 2005)

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