Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ultraviolet Radiation (UV) | The energy range just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum. Although ultraviolet radiation constitutes only about 5 percent of the total energy emitted from the sun, it is the major energy source for the stratosphere and mesosphere, playing a dominant role in both energy balance and chemical composition. Climate Change Denial |
| Vaccination | The physical act of administering any vaccine. Vaccines |
| Vaccine | A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future. Vaccines |
| Validation | Checking the accuracy of something. For example, to validate a climate model, scientists run the model to ?predict? the weather patterns over the past 20 years. Then they compare the output with the actual measurements and observations we have collected for that time. Science General |
| Variable | In scientific or mathematical models, a factor whose value may vary (e.g., average air temperature, amount of solar radiation, etc.) Science General |
| Variance | A measure of how different the numbers in a set are from one another. For example, the two sets of numbers {6, 2, 3, 1} and {2, 4, 3, 3} have the same average (or mean) of 3, but the first set has a greater variance. Science General |
| Viral Vector Vaccine | A vaccine that uses a modified, harmless fraction of a different virus (a vector virus) associated with an antigen that can induce production of important instructions that are delivered to the body's cells. Vaccines |
| Virulence | The relative capacity of a pathogen to overcome body defenses and elicit symptoms. Vaccines |
| Virus | A tiny organism that multiplies within cells and causes diseases such as chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics, the drugs used to kill bacteria. Vaccines |
| Water Vapor | The most abundant greenhouse gas, it is the water present in the atmosphere in gaseous form. Water vapor is an important part of the natural greenhouse effect. While humans are not significantly increasing its concentration through direct emissions, it contributes to the enhanced greenhouse effect because the warming influence of greenhouse gases leads to a positive water vapor feedback. Climate Change Denial |