Playbill | Glossary
A Glossary of Names, Terms, and Ideas used in Muse
Table of Contents:
Names
Finn/Phineas (fin, fi-nee-uhs): Based on Orpheus from Greek mythology who traveled to the underworld to bring back his wife, Eurydice.
Dr. Lee Brook: Lee is short for lethe (lee-thee) as in the river Lethe in the Greek Underworld. Lethe is the river of forgetfulness.
Eurydice (yr-ih-duh-see): Based on Eurydice from Greek mythology, a nymph and Orpheus’ wife and muse.
Aster (ah-stir): A Greek name meaning star. They are also a type of flower.
Bia (American: bee-uh; Greek vee– uh): In Greek mythology, Bia was the personification of energy and force.
Eris (American: air-is; Greek air- ees): In Greek mythology, Eris was a minor goddess of strife and discord.
Science Terminology
Acid catalyzed (ah-sid ka-tuh-lyzed) reaction: A chemical reaction that is started or sped up (catalyzed) by the addition of an acid.
Base catalyzed (bayse ka-tuh-lyzed) reaction: A chemical reaction that is started or sped up (catalyzed) by the addition of a base.
Bioremediation (bi-oh-ruh-mee-dee-ay-shun): “The use of living organisms (esp. microorganisms) to consume and break down environmental pollutants (esp. from an oil spill) for the purposes of cleaning a particular area.” – Oxford English Dictionary
Enzyme (en-zime): Proteins “produced by a living organism which acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction.” – Oxford Languages
- Enzymatic activity (en-zah-ma-tick ak-ti-vuh-tee): A measure of an enzyme’s catalytic ability/properties that shows how fast the enzyme catalyzed reaction is in terms of how much substrate (reaction ingredients) is converted to product per minute.
- Enzyme efficiency: Related to enzymatic activity, how efficient an enzyme catalyzed reaction is.
- Enzyme engineering: A type of engineering focused on altering and customizing enzymes and biocatalysts to enhance activity and efficiency. Often achieved using genetic engineering.
Hydrolysis (hai-draa-luh-sis): The use of water to physically split apart compounds.
Lab meeting: A regularly occurring meeting where members of a research lab share updates about their research projects. Format and frequency varies between labs and not all labs have a regular full lab meeting.
- Journal club: A regularly occurring meeting where lab members discuss a specific research paper that was read in advance. The selected paper is typically one that was recently published and relates to the lab’s research. Journal clubs are less ubiquitous in labs than normal lab meetings, and are sometimes focused on the undergraduate research assistants in the lab.
Lignin (lig-nin): “A complex organic polymer deposited in the cell walls of many plants, making them rigid and woody.” – Oxford Languages
- Organic polymer: An organic substance made of many repeating units of large molecules (macromolecules).
Lipid bilayer: “A biological membrane consisting of two layers of lipid molecules. Each lipid molecule, or phospholipid, contains a hydrophilic [water loving] head and a hydrophobic [water hating] tail. The tail regions, being repelled by water and slightly attracted to each other, congregate together. This exposes the head regions to the outside, creating a barrier between two bodies of water.” – Biology Dictionary
- The cell membrane is a lipid bilayer, as well as most organelle membranes.
Microbes: Any microorganism; includes bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
- Iron-oxidizing bacteria: A type of bacteria that synthesizes energy by oxidizing (a type of reaction where electrons are lost, often involves oxygen) iron.
- R. opacus PD630 (R oh-pey-kuhs P-D-630): Rhodococcus opacus is a species of bacteria. PD630 is a specific strain of R. opacus, meaning that it is a specific genetic subtype of the species.
Mitochondria (mai-toe-kaan-dree-uh): A part of the cell (an organelle) that produces ATP (molecule required for cellular reactions/the cell’s energy) through a process called cellular respiration.
- The powerhouse of the cell.
Phenolic (fi-no-lik): Relating to, containing, or derived from a phenol, which is “any compound with a hydroxyl group linked directly to a benzene ring –Oxford Languages
- Hydroxyl group: An oxygen bound to a hydrogen with two lone pairs of electrons.
- Benzene ring: A ring formed from six oxygen atoms bound to hydrogen atoms.
Postdoctoral Researcher/Postdoc: A final stage of training after a researcher receives their PhD, but before they have their own lab. Typically a fellowship position where the researcher works in an established lab as they prepare to start their own lab.
- Finn meets Eurydice as a PhD student and Dr. Brook as a postdoc. Eris is the principal investigator that Finn is doing his postdoc under.
Ribosomes (ri-bo-zomes): “A minute particle consisting of RNA and associated proteins found in large numbers in the cytoplasm of living cells. They bind messenger RNA and transfer RNA to synthesize polypeptides and proteins.” – Oxford Languages
Thermal equilibrium: A state in which there is no net flow of thermal energy between two objects in thermal contact with each other because there is no difference in the temperature of the two objects.
1st Law of Thermodynamics/Law of Conservation of Energy: A law in chemistry and physics stating that “the total energy of an isolated system remains constant…[which] means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another.” – Wikipedia
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: A physical law that states “the total entropy of a system either increases or remains constant in any spontaneous process; it never decreases. An important implication of this law is that heat transfers energy spontaneously from higher- to lower-temperature objects, but never spontaneously in the reverse direction”. – Physics, OpenStax
Other:
“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman: An epic poem by Walt Whitman that explores concepts including the self, life, death, and nature. The poem was originally published in Leaves of Grass in 1855 with revised editions published in 1881 and 1891.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A type of psychological treatment with a range of applications including depression and addiction. The focus of CBT is centered around the knowledge that “psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking… and learned patterns of unhelpful behavior”. Through CBT, a person will learn skills to identify and change these thoughts and behavioral patterns. – American Psychological Association
- Dr. Brook also uses acceptance and commitment therapy with Finn and attempts art therapy.
The Greek Muses: A group of Greek goddesses who served as inspiration for the arts, literature, and sciences. There have been several origins and groups of Muses described throughout history with the most famous being the three original Boeotian Muses and the nine Olympian Muses. The two Muses referenced in Muse are Clio and Calliope who were the Olympian muses for history and epic poetry respectively.