How to Read Science Research, Chapter 6: Deciphering Big Science Words

Now that we’ve talked a little bit about how experiments are designed, I’d like to share some tips for navigating through big science words.

Science is full of big words. Knowing how to get through articles that use these big words involves understanding why science is full of big words.

Some science words are big because scientists have historically favored long and impressive-sounding words derived from Latin and Greek. Other words are long because scientists like being specific and descriptive, so they create new words by squishing already-existing words together. This combination creates a lot of words that look intimidating at the start, but are actually not too hard to interpret.

For example, if you know that “morph” is a Greek root that means “shape”, and “poly” means “many”, you could guess that polymorphic might mean something that has many shapes, and you would be correct. If you know that the prefix “a-” means “not” or “without”, like in asymmetrical, which means “doesn’t have symmetry”, you might also guess that amorphic means “without shape” or “shapeless”. And you would be correct again.

For those of you who aren’t into studying Latin and Greek word roots, you can often call on your personal experience to help you figure out roots. Many people already know that “homo-” and “hetero-” mean same and different, respectively, because they are often used to describe sexual orientation. Here are some other roots you might already be familiar with:

Mono- = one

Bi-/Di- = two

Micro- = small

You might even be able to guess that the prefix “stom-” has to do with eating and “zoo-” has to do with animals.

You can learn more Latin and Greek word roots here.

One other type of long and intimidating science word is the Latin name of an organism (living thing). Organisms are often described using their species and genus name, which are often long and Latin. It’s usually not important what those words mean (or even how they’re pronounced), other than that they are the names of the species being discussed. For example, if you’re reading an article about E. coli, the bacteria that is responsible for some pretty serious foodborne illness, you don’t need to know what E. coli means or what it stands for, only that it is the name of the bacterium. Even if you see its full name, Escherichia coli, you can use its nickname (E. coli) in your head when you’re reading, or even give it another nickname. “The E thing”? “The bug”? Why not?

Here’s an example to show you how you can break down some previously intimidating big science words. This excerpt is from PLOS, an open-source (free), nonprofit collection of science research articles.

“The bacterial membrane fission protein FisB exploits the unique cellular geometry encountered during sporulation to enable its localization to the fission site through a novel mechanism, where it catalyzes membrane scission.” (Source)

Here are some words we might know:

bacterial = relating to bacteria, or germs

membrane = outside layer, skin, like cell membrane

fission = break apart, like nuclear fission

cellular = relating to a cell

geometry = shape

sporulation = something about a spore…making a spore?

localization = getting near?

site = a place, which means localization was probably about getting near

novel = new

catalyzes = facilitates

scission = I’ve actually never seen this word before, but it looks similar to “fission”, so I’m guessing it’s some sort of breaking apart or something else that can happen to a membrane

When practicing to read science texts, I might cross out every big word I know or can predict, and replace it with the simpler word. After plenty of practice, I will do that all in my head.

If I replaced the words, this is what the paragraph would look like:

The germ’s skin-breaking protein FisB exploits the unique shape of the cell, encountered when the cell is making spores, to enable its finding the breaking site through a new mechanism, where it facilitates the membrane breaking. [I added the commas where I thought it would help make it easier to understand.]

My interpretation may or may not be correct, but it gives me a framework for understanding the article. As I read more, I can go back and correct my mistakes. At the moment, I am expecting an article about how FisB breaks down bacterial membranes using some process called scission. I’m already wondering if this has any implications for medicine and treating bacterial infections.

I’ve been teaching this reading skill for many years and practicing it for many more. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of iterations. You might, at first, only be able to interpret one word. Then, with that word in mind, you can guess a couple more. You might only have a vague idea of what’s going on. That’s a good start! It’s better than before! With practice, you will refine the skill.

Go find some science sentences to practice interpreting!

Next up is Chapter 7: What Can We Learn From Author Lists?

Sources:

https://www.dummies.com/education/science/biology/common-latin-and-greek-roots-in-biology-vocabulary/

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001314