Carcinoma
Cancers occurring in the epithelial cells covering the surface of the body and lining the internal organs. Carcinomas account s for about 90% of all cancer.

Camivorous
Feeding largely or exclusively on meat or other animal tissue.

Carrier
An individual who possesses an unexpressed, recessive trait.
2. An individual who carries the abnormal gene for a specific condition (often, a recessive condition) without symptoms.
3. An individual who has one non-functioning gene for a recessive disorder can transmit that gene to his or her offspring. Carriers most often have no outward manifestations of their condition.

Carson, Rachel
A scientist and writer fascinated with the workings of nature. Her best-known publication, Silent Spring, was written over the years 1958 to 1962. The book looks at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on songbird populations throughout the United States. The publication helped set off a wave of environmental legislation and galvanized the emerging ecological movement.

Castle, W.E.
An early experimental geneticist, his 1901 paper was the first on Mendelism in America. His Genetics of Domestic Rabbits, published in 1930 by Harvard University Press, covers such topics as the genes involved in determining the coat colors of rabbits and associated mutations.

Catabolite activator protein (CAP)
A protein that binds cAMP and regulates the activation of inducible operons in prokaryotes.

2. A small, watery, membrane-bound compartment filled with chemicals; the basic subunit of any living thing.
3. The basic structural and functional unit of most living organisms. Cell size varies, but most cells are microscopic. Cells may exist as independent units of life, as in bacteria and protozoans, or they may form colonies or tissues, as in all plants and animals. Each cell consists of a mass of protein material that is differentiated into cytoplasm and nucleoplasm, which contains DNA. The cell is enclosed by a cell membrane, which in the cells of plants, fungi, algae, and bacteria is surrounded by a cell wall. There are two main types of cell, prokaryotic and eukaryotic.
4. The basic structural unit of most living things. Each cell is like a bag or a box with a surface that interacts with its environment and watery interior, where most chemical reactions take place. Gates and channels in the cell surface actively maintain the conditions inside a cell. Each cell typically contains an entire copy of the organism's genome.
Cells also communicate with other cells. Cells in a complex organism, such as a human being, differentiate from one another over the course of development following conception. Different cell types emerge and take on dramatically different roles, such as communication, transportation, metabolism and defense.