www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic Evolution^SM

Biology Definition: The study of living organisms and life processes, including origins, classification, structure, activities, and distribution.

Click Here for my page on general science...

Click Here for my page on Life...

Click Here for my page on Evolution...

The 1976 edition of the Basic Biology textbook, by Richard A. Goldsby, starts out with, "Biology is defined as the study of life. But what is life?"

Mr. Goldsby said, "To explore the characteristics of life in general, three approaches are available. The first can be called the functional approach. It is based on a simple idea: life is what life does. It is easy to list all the characteristic activities of life, or the behavior of living things. In fact, a few decades ago such lists were often used as the basis for defining life. But this was a purely physiological definition. The second approach is genetic. [Goldsby's emphasis] It is based on the premise that if we can learn how life began we will then understand what life is. Finally there is the structural approach. We can try to understand life by studying the physical and chemical organization of life. Each of these approaches has its limitations. Together, however, they form the basic tools with which the biologist is able to explore the nature of life and the nature of all living things." (p. I)

In his page IX summary, Goldsby went on to say, "We can easily classify most things as being either living or nonliving. But what do we use as the basis for such classification? Exobiologists at NASA have concluded that only two characteristics can be considered truly fundamental to life. One is the ability to reproduce. The other is the ability to produce and perpetuate genetic variation among offspring. The second characteristic is important because it enables a species to survive drastic environmental change by itself changing. Individuals with a trait that has survival value under changing conditions are more likely to live and reproduce. Those with the valuable trait will thus pass it on to their offspring. In time, the entire population will possess it."

Goldsby is pointing in the direction of evolution, another subject of interest to me, but the main idea for this page is life and living things. Think, for a moment, how marvelous, wonderful and special living things actually are. Plants, insects, mammals, fish - they're all more wonderful and amazing than anything the human mind could ever invent or imagine. I, myself, am swept away with the mystery of it all and can only begin to explain and illustrate how important living things, all living things, really are in this world. Of course as I write this, in 2006, much of life has been destroyed, or is being destroyed, by human greed and indifference.

Nevertheless, as time permits, I'll add bits and pieces that are of biological interest to this page. With a little luck, my effort my help reverse a trend that's wrecking so much havoc on the natural world. And, there are countless other works equal or better to Godlsby's conttribution. I just happened across his book, exactly 30 years after it was first published, and found it an appropriate start for a fascinating subject - life!

- Roger J. Wendell
Golden, Colorado - spring 2006

Mushroom I found near Ken Booker's memorial in the Colorado Rockies in August 2004...

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) adenine thymine guanine cytosine

Life Defined There are currently four biological groups recognized by modern science. Here's a brief summary of each:

1. Archaea - a recently discoved group of oranisms that live in extremely hostile habitats like thermal volcanic vents, saline pools, and hot springs. Archaea are single-celled organisms that are similar in appearance to bacteria are very different biochemically and genetically. They're sometimes referred to as archaebacteria.
2. Bacteria - simple single-celled organisms that usually lack chlorophyll (cyanobacteria is an exception) and have a prokaryote (organisms without a cell nucleus) type.
3. Eukaryota - organisms in which the cells have their genetic material organized into a membrane-bound nucleus or nuclei. This group of life includes the kingdoms Protista (group of organisms comprising those eukaryotes that are not animals, plants, or fungi - Protists can move independently and feed by absorbing other cells), Fungi (Fungi were originally classified as plants, however have since been separated as they are heterotrophs. This means they do not fix their own carbon through photosynthesis, but use carbon fixed by other organisms for metabolism), Animalia (Animals are multi-cellular, capable of locomotion, responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms), and Plantae (Plants like trees, flowers, herbs, ferns, and mosses).
4. Viruses - fragments of DNA or RNA that depend on the host cells they infect for reproduction. Viruses are not cells and are, at times, metabolically inert and technically non-living. Viruses cause a variety of diseases in Euukaryote organisms - including humans...

Population Biology Dr. C.N Slobodchikoff, Prairie Dogs (Communication and Community in an Animal Society), pp. 94-95

"Population biology is the study of how populations of organisms change through time. Before we discuss population biology of prairie dogs we need to define some basic guiding principles of the discipline. First and foremost is the definition of a population. A population is simply a group of plants, animals, or other organisms of the same species that live together. In some cases the actual determination of populations is rather challenging, especially in the case of solitary animals like mountain lions and grizzly bears that live in individual territories but interact to reproduce. In this case one must define where the interactions between a group of grizzlies stop and where another interactive group starts and this is often very time consuming and nebulous."

"The growth and decline in populations of all species are due to four major factors: births, deaths, emigrations, and immigrations. If births and immigrations exceed deaths and emigrations, the population will grow. If deaths and births and immigrations balance deaths and emigrations, the population will stay static. Thus, because population biology is the study of how populations change, it is essentially the study of births, deaths, emigration, and immigration and the factors that affect these four variables (Wilson and Bossert 1971)."

Miscellaneous Definitions:

Click Here for pronunciation of biological Latin...

Latin biological names in Englishspeech are usually pronounced with English letter sounds. For example, virusis pronounce “vye-rus” in English, but would have been pronounced “weeros” inthe Latin of ancient Rome. An Anglo-Latin pronunciation has been in use forcenturies, and incorporates features of late Roman dialects that differ fromclassical Latin.

Several authors have identified rules that describe the traditionalEnglish pronunciation. Usage varies among individuals and continues to evolve,but the descriptive rules serve as a convenient pronunciation benchmark.

Letter sounds are as in English words (and therefore varywith dialect).

The diphthongs ae and oe are treated as theletter e.

aesthetic, aestivate(pronounced as short English e as in met or iii as in is)

larvae, vertebrae (pronouncedas long English e as in me, we)

oesophagus, oestrogen(short e sound)

foetus, amoeba(long e sound)

Note the ae ending in animal and plant family names: Canidae,the dog family, is pronounced “canidee”, not “caniday”, similarlySalmonidae, Rosaceae etc.

(ae and oe, following American trends, are nowoften written simply as e: anemia, fetus.)

c or g preceding ae or oe ispronounced as though followed by e:

caecum = “seekum”

coelom = “seelum”

algae = “aljee”

A terminal vowel is always pronounced:

ovale = “oh-VAY-lee”

bacilli = “bas-ILL-eye”

difficile = “dif-ISS-il-lee”

English pronunciation conserves the classical Roman accentposition, but vowel length rules are unique, and are much more regular thanthose of classical Latin.

are stressed on the first syllable:

Femur ="FE-mur"

Sinus = "SI-nus"

Rosa = "RO-sa"

(a) The vowel of the firstsyllable is short if followed by two or more consonants:

Comma (o as in cot)(Compare with coma, with one m, below)

Fossa (o as in cot)

Hosta (o as in cot)

Rattus (a as in cat)

Vespa (e as in met)

Septum (e as in met)

Cistus (i as in mit)

(b) The vowel of the firstsyllable is long if followed by a single consonant:

Coma (o as in go)(Compare with comma, with double-m, above)

Ovis (o as in go)

Rosa (o as in go)

Crocus (o as in go)

Ramus (a as in gate)

Fagus (a as in gate)

Canis (a as in gate)

Salix (a as in gate)

Felis (e as in me)

Femur (e as in me)

Sedum (e as in me)

Lepus (e as in me)

Iris (i as in hi)

Pinus (i as in hi)

Plica (i as in hi)

(a) are stressed on the secondto last syllable if:

the vowel of that syllable isfollowed by two or more consonants (making the vowel short)

Maxilla = "mac-ZILL-a"

Patella ="pa-TELL-a"

Chlorella = "Klo-RELL-a"

Lamella ="la-MELL-a"

Medulla ="med-ULL-a"

Narcissus = "nar-SIS-sus"

Canadensis = "ca-na-DEN-sis"

(b) are stressed on the secondto last syllable if:

the vowel is long in thelanguage of origin

Pectoralis = "pec-to-RAY-lis"

Maculata = "ma-cu-LAY-ta"

Brachialis = "bra-ke-AY-lis"

Umbellata = "um-bel-LAY-ta"

Foramen = "fo-RAY-men"

Lupinus = "lu-PYE-nus"

Alpinus = "al-PIE-nus"

Bovinae = "bov-EYE-nee"

Homininae = hom-in-EYE-nee"

Hominini = hom-in EYE-nye"

Hominina = hom-inEYE-na"

Equisetum = "ek-wi-SEE-tum"

Oenothera = "en-o-THEE-ra"

(c) are stressed on the thirdto last syllable if 2a and 2b do not apply.

Oesophagus =e-SAW-fag-us"

Stomata ="STOM-at-a"

Echinodermata = "e-ki-no-DER-mah-ta"

Parenchyma = "pa-REN-kim-ma"

Clematis = "CLEM-ma-tis"

Oxalis = "OX-al-is"

Monticola = "mon-TIC-ol-a"

Pterophyta = "ter-OFF-fit-a"

Bryophyta = "bry-OFF-fit-ta"

Gastropoda = "gas-TROP-od-a"

Copepoda = co-PEP-od-a"

Disporum = "DIS-po-rum"

chiroptera = "ky-ROP-ter-a"

spermophilus = "sper-MOF-il-us"

sylvilagus = "sil-VIL-ag-us"

silogale = "spi-LOG-al-ee"

hemionus ="hem-EYE-on-us"

cyclamen ="SICK-la-men"

The stressed vowel isshort except: if u as in humerus, numeral, jugular;if preceding a vowel (hemionus, Gaviidae); or if as in media,splenius, radius, planaria, phobia, mammalia, rosaceae etc.

This bulk of this article wasextracted from http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm where further information can be found, for example on commemorative names,classical pronunciation and other exceptions to the rules above.

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