Cascade - Definition and Overview

The word cascade can have many meanings:

• In biochemistry, a cascade is a consecutive series of chemical reactions. There are several important biochemical cascade reactions in biochemistry, including the enzymatic cascades, like the coagulation cascade and the complement system, and the signal transduction cascades like the olfactory signal-transduction cascade.
• In physics, cascade is used for things like the quantum cascade laser, where a very powerful laser is created by letting electrons cascade down an energy staircase, emitting a photon at each step.
• The Cascade Range is a mountain range at the west coast of North America
• Cascade, Seychelles is also the name of a district in the Republic of Seychelles.
• The Seibel grape, Seibel 13053, is called Cascade.
• A juggling cascade is a juggling pattern.
• A cascade is small fall of water, usually as one of a series.
• The Cascade Brewery is a brewer in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• In chemical engineering, a cascade is a plant consisting of several similar stages with each processing the output from the previous stage. Cascades are particularly used in isotope separation, distillation and other separation processes.