product
a running total
algorithm discovery
finding a solution to a given problem
reverse telephone lookup
an application where you find a person’s name given his or her telephone number
sequential search
Starting at the beginning of a set of numbers and looking at each number in the list, one at a time, until we either find the one we are looking for or we come to the end of the list.
iteration
the repetitive execution of a block of operations
loop
the repetitive execution of a block of statements a large number of times
index
a “moving finger” that scans a list and points to the one that the algorithm is currently working on
library
a collection of useful, prewritten algorithms
pattern matching
the process of searching for a special pattern of symbols within a larger collection of information
human genome
the basis for all human life
a,c,t,g
4 letters for the human genome
nucleotides
Sequences of human genomes
genome annotation
the process of of locating the starting and ending boundaries of an individual gene within the 3+ billion nucleotides
probe
the sequence of nucleotides that scientists know
abstraction
the separation of the high-level view of an entity or an operation from the low-level details of its implementation.
top-down design
Viewing an operation at a high level of abstraction and fleshing out the details of its implementation at a later time