www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
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Pink Flower by Roger J. Wendell - 08-23-2002 Biology

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

 

Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my page on general science...
Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my page on Life...
Arrow Pointing Right 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

 

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Mushroom near Ken Booker Memorial
Mushroom I found near Ken Booker's memorial
in the Colorado Rockies in August 2004... 		DNA Moving
DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid)
adenine thymine guanine cytosine

 

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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 multi­cellular, 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...

 

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Miscellaneous Definitions:

  • Angiosperms - Plants that flower and form fruits (ovary) with seeds (the Earth's most common plant form) - see Gymnosperms below.
  • Allelopathy - Root secretions that kill other plants.
  • Biomimicry - Is (from www.BioMimicry.org):
    • Is a new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.
    • Uses an ecological standard to judge the "rightness" of our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned: What works. What is appropriate. What lasts.
    • Is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but on what we can learn from it.
  • Detritivore - An animal that feeds on animal and plant waste or remains, sequentially reducing the particle sizes so that the true decomposers, bacteria and fungi, can break them down to their constituent chemical parts for recycling in the ecosystem.
  • Endophytes - "within plant," from the Greek, fungi and bacteria living inside of leaves and needles.
  • Epiphytes - "air plants" that depend on trees or other plants for support, but not nutrients.
  • Gymnosperms - Plants whose seeds are not enclosed by a ripened ovary (fruit) - see Angiosperms above. An example would be a typical pine cone.
  • Lignin - comprises as much as one fourth of the volume of wood, acting like a cement holding the cellulose, pectin and related polysaccharides together (It is lignin that lends the vanilla odor to fresh sawdust).
  • Precautionary Principle - ?In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.? [Article 15 of the Rio declaration of 1992]
  • Punctuated Equilibrium - a term developed by evoluntionary biologists to define nature's patterns of sudden pulses of speciation and extinction, followed by long periods of more subdued evolutionary activity.
  • Rhizome - a lateral, underground root system, sending out above-ground shoots to forma vast network.
  • Saprotrophs - fungi or bacteria that live on and help decay dead organic matter.

Links:

  1. Animals and wildlife
  2. Ant Web
  3. Backyard Wildlife
  4. Biodiversity
  5. Biomimicry
  6. Bioneers
  7. Climate Change
  8. Deep Ecology
  9. Ecological Footprint Calculator
  10. Evolution
  11. Extinction
  12. Game of Life by John Conway (1970)
  13. GMOs and Cloning
  14. Insects
  15. NIISS - National Institute of Invasive Species Science
  16. Oreodont Ulma
  17. Pets
  18. Plants
  19. Science Stuff
  20. USDA - Plants database for the U.S. and its territories
  21. WIPS - Western Interior Paleontological Society
  22. World Charter for Nature - United Nations

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