Given a question and a context passage, generate the answer having the word or phrase from the context passage. Here, the answer should be a shortest continous span from the passage.
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Question: Context: To understand minerals, we must first understand matter. Matter is the substance that physical objects are made of. The basic unit of matter is an atom. At the center of an atom is its nucleus. Protons are positively charged particles in the nucleus. Also in the nucleus are neutrons with no electrical charge. Orbiting the nucleus are tiny electrons. Electrons are negatively charged. An atom with the same number of protons and electrons is electrically neutral. If the atom has more or less electrons to protons it is called an ion. An ion will have positive charge if it has more protons than electrons. It will have negative charge if it has more electrons than protons. An atom is the smallest unit of a chemical element. That is, an atom has all the properties of that element. All atoms of the same element have the same number of protons. A molecule is the smallest unit of a chemical compound. A compound is a substance made of two or more elements. The elements in a chemical compound are always present in a certain ratio. Water is probably one of the simplest compounds that you know. A water molecule is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (Figure 3.2). All water molecules have the same ratio: two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom. A mineral is a solid material that forms by a natural process. A mineral can be made of an element or a compound. It has a specific chemical composition that is different from other minerals. One minerals physical properties differ from others. These properties include crystal structure, hardness, density and color. Each is made of different elements. Each has different physical properties. For example, silver is a soft, shiny metal. Salt is a white, cube- shaped crystal. Diamond is an extremely hard, translucent crystal. Minerals are made by natural processes. The processes that make minerals happen in or on the Earth. For example, when hot lava cools, mineral crystals form. Minerals also precipitate from water. Some minerals grow when rocks are exposed to high pressures and temperatures. Could something like a mineral be made by a process that was not natural? People make gemstones in a laboratory. Synthetic diamond is a common one. But that stone is not a mineral. It was not formed by a natural process. A mineral is an inorganic substance. It was not made by living organisms. Organic substances contain carbon. Some organic substances are proteins, carbohydrates, and oils. Everything else is inorganic. In a few cases, living organisms make inorganic materials. The calcium carbonate shells made by marine animals are inorganic. All minerals have a definite chemical makeup. A few minerals are made of only one kind of element. Silver is a mineral made only of silver atoms. Diamond and graphite are both made only of the element carbon. Minerals that are not pure elements are made of chemical compounds. For example, the mineral quartz is made of the compound silicon dioxide, or SiO2 . This compound has one atom of the element silicon for every two atoms of the element oxygen. Each mineral has its own unique chemical formula. For example, the mineral hematite has two iron atoms for every three oxygen atoms. The mineral magnetite has three iron atoms for every four oxygen atoms. Many minerals have very complex chemical formulas that include several elements. However, even in more complicated compounds, the elements occur in definite ratios. Minerals must be solid. For example, ice and water have the same chemical composition. Ice is a solid, so it is a mineral. Water is a liquid, so it is not a mineral. Some solids are not crystals. Glass, or the rock obsidian, are solid but not crystals. In a crystal, the atoms are arranged in a pattern. This pattern is regular and it repeats. Figure 3.3 shows how the atoms are arranged in halite (table salt). Halite contains atoms of sodium and chlorine in a pattern. Notice that the pattern goes in all three dimensions. The pattern of atoms in all halite is the same. Think about all of the grains of salt that are 
 Question: smallest particle of an element that has all the elements properties

Answer: atom


Question: Context: Lets explore the domain, the least specific category of classification. All of life can be divided into three domains, based on the type of cell of the organism: 1. Bacteria: cells do not contain a nucleus. 2. Archaea: cells do not contain a nucleus; they have a different cell wall from bacteria. 3. Eukarya: cells do contain a nucleus. The Archaea and Bacteria domains ( Figure 1.1) are both entirely composed of small, single-celled organisms and seem very similar, but they also have significant differences. Both are composed of prokaryotic cells, which are cells without a nucleus. In addition, both domains are composed of species that reproduce asexually ( asexual reproduction) by dividing in two. Both domains also have species with cells surrounded by a cell wall, however, the cell walls are made of different materials. Bacterial cell walls contain the polysaccharide peptidoglycan. Lastly, Archaea often live in extreme environments including hot springs, geysers, and salt flats. Bacteria do not live in these environments. The Group A Streptococcus organism (left) is in the domain Bacteria, one of the three domains of life. The Halobacterium (right) is in the domain Archaea, another one of the three domains. All of the cells in the domain Eukarya keep their genetic material, or DNA, inside the nucleus. The domain Eukarya is made up of four kingdoms: 1. Plantae: Plants, such as trees and grasses, survive by capturing energy from the sun, a process called photo- synthesis. 2. Fungi: Fungi, such as mushrooms and molds, survive by "eating" other organisms or the remains of other organisms. These organisms absorb their nutrients from other organisms. 3. Animalia: Animals also survive by eating other organisms or the remains of other organisms. Animals range from tiny ants to the largest whales, and include arthropods, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals ( Figure 4. Protista: Protists are not all descended from a single common ancestor in the way that plants, animals, and fungi are. Protists are all the eukaryotic organisms that do not fit into one of the other three kingdoms. They include many kinds of microscopic one-celled (unicellular) organisms, such as algae and plankton, but also giant seaweeds that can grow to be 200 feet long. Plants, animals, fungi, and protists might seem very different, but remember that if you look through a microscope, you will find similar cells with a membrane-bound nucleus in all of them. These are eukaryotic cells. These cells also have membrane-bound organelles, which prokaryotic cells lack. The main characteristics of the three domains of life are summarized in Table 1.1. Multicelluar Cell wall Nucleus (Membrane- Enclosed DNA) Membrane-Bound Organelles Archaea No Yes, without peptidogly- can Bacteria No Yes, with peptidoglycan No No Eukarya Yes Varies. Plants and fungi have a cell wall; animals do not. Yes No No Yes Diversity of Animals. These photos give just an inkling of the diversity of organisms that belong to the animal kingdom. (A) Sponge, (B) Flatworm, (C) Flying Insect, (D) Frog, (E) Tiger, (F) Gorilla. 
 Question: if you find a single-celled organism living in a geyser, it probably belongs to which domain?

Answer: archaea


Question: Context: Radioactive decay is the breakdown of unstable elements into stable elements. To understand this process, recall that the atoms of all elements contain the particles protons, neutrons, and electrons. An element is defined by the number of protons it contains. All atoms of a given element contain the same number of protons. The number of neutrons in an element may vary. Atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Consider carbon as an example. Two isotopes of carbon are shown in Figure 11.15. Compare their protons and neutrons. Both contain 6 protons. But carbon-12 has 6 neutrons and carbon-14 has 8 neutrons. Almost all carbon atoms are carbon-12. This is a stable isotope of carbon. Only a tiny percentage of carbon atoms are carbon-14. Carbon-14 is unstable. Figure 11.16 shows carbon dioxide, which forms in the atmosphere from carbon-14 and oxygen. Neutrons in cosmic rays strike nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere. The nitrogen forms carbon- 14. Carbon in the atmosphere combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. In this way, carbon-14 enters food chains. Like other unstable isotopes, carbon-14 breaks down, or decays. For carbon-14 decay, each carbon-14 atom loses an alpha particle. It changes to a stable atom of nitrogen-14. This is illustrated in Figure 11.17. The decay of an unstable isotope to a stable element occurs at a constant rate. This rate is different for each isotope pair. The decay rate is measured in a unit called the half-life. The half-life is the time it takes for half of a given amount of an isotope to decay. For example, the half-life of carbon-14 is 5730 years. Imagine that you start out with 100 grams of carbon-14. In 5730 years, half of it decays. This leaves 50 grams of carbon-14. Over the next 5730 years, half of the remaining amount will decay. Now there are 25 grams of carbon-14. How many grams will there be in another 5730 years? Figure 11.18 graphs the rate of decay of carbon-14. The rate of decay of unstable isotopes can be used to estimate the absolute ages of fossils and rocks. This type of dating is called radiometric dating. The best-known method of radiometric dating is carbon-14 dating. A living thing takes in carbon-14 (along with stable carbon-12). As the carbon-14 decays, it is replaced with more carbon-14. After the organism dies, it stops taking in carbon. That includes carbon-14. The carbon-14 that is in its body continues to decay. So the organism contains less and less carbon-14 as time goes on. We can estimate the amount of carbon-14 that has decayed by measuring the amount of carbon-14 to carbon-12. We know how fast carbon-14 decays. With this information, we can tell how long ago the organism died. Carbon-14 has a relatively short half-life. It decays quickly compared to some other unstable isotopes. So carbon- 14 dating is useful for specimens younger than 50,000 years old. Thats a blink of an eye in geologic time. But radiocarbon dating is very useful for more recent events. One important use of radiocarbon is early human sites. Carbon-14 dating is also limited to the remains of once-living things. To date rocks, scientists use other radioactive isotopes. The isotopes in Table 11.1 are used to date igneous rocks. These isotopes have much longer half-lives than carbon- 14. Because they decay more slowly, they can be used to date much older specimens. Which of these isotopes could be used to date a rock that formed half a million years ago? Unstable Isotope Decays to At a Half-Life of (years) Potassium-40 Uranium-235 Uranium-238 Argon-40 Lead-207 Lead-206 1.3 billion 700 million 4.5 billion Dates Rocks Aged (years old) 100 thousand - 1 billion 1 million - 4.5 billion 1 million - 4.5 billion 
 Question: stable isotope of carbon

Answer:
carbon-12