CZ:Core Articles > Biology

•  Biology: The science of life — of complex, self-organizing, information-processing systems living in the past, present or future. [e]
•  Life: Living systems, of which biologists seek the commonalities distinguishing them from nonliving systems. [e]

Biochemistry

•  Biochemistry: The chemistry of living things; a field of both biology and chemistry. [e]
•  Metabolism: The modification of chemical substances by living organisms. [e]
•  Ion channel: Gated, ion-selective glycoproteins that traverse membranes. The stimulus for channel gating can be a membrane potential, drug, transmitter, cytoplasmic messenger, or a mechanical deformation (U.S. National Library of Medicine). [e]
• Protein synthesis: Add brief definition or description
• Oxidative phosphorylation: Add brief definition or description
• Anaerobic respiration: Add brief definition or description

• Active site: Add brief definition or description
•  Adenosine triphosphate: A molecule sometimes called the "energy currency" of a cell [e]
• Antibody: Add brief definition or description
• ATP synthase: Add brief definition or description
• Carbohydrate: Add brief definition or description
• Chemiosmosis: Add brief definition or description
• Electron transport chain: Add brief definition or description
• Enzyme kinetics: The time course of chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes. [e]
• Fat: Adipose tissue; the body's store of energy. [e]
• Glycoprotein: Add brief definition or description
• Michaelis-Menten kinetics: Add brief definition or description
•  Monoclonal antibody: Highly specific antibodies produced in large quantity by the clones of a single hybrid cell formed in the laboratory by the fusion of a B cell with a tumor cell. [e]
• Myosin: Add brief definition or description
• Peptide: Add brief definition or description
• Protein phosphorylation: Add brief definition or description
•  Polypeptide: Compound containing two or more amino acids linked by a peptide bond, called dipeptide, tripeptide, etc., depending on the number of amino acids present. [e]
• Polysaccharide: Add brief definition or description
•  Protein folding: The physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional three-dimensional structure from random coil. [e]
•  Protein structure: The structure of a protein, consisting of primary, secondary and tertiary structures. [e]
• Proteolysis: Add brief definition or description
• Receptor (biochemistry): Add brief definition or description
• Redox: Add brief definition or description
• Substrate (biology): Add brief definition or description
• Vitamin: Add brief definition or description

Biography

•  Biography: The history of a person's life. [e]
•  Francis Crick: (1916-2004) British Nobel Prize-winning biochemist; co-discoverer of the helical structure of DNA. [e]
•  Félix d'Hérelle: (1873 – 1949) - A French-Canadian bacteriologist, and the discoverer of bacteriophages. [e]
•  Charles Darwin: (1809 – 1882) English natural scientist, most famous for proposing the theory of natural selection. [e]
•  Barbara McClintock: (1902 – 1992) - American cytogeneticist who won a Nobel Prize in 1983 for the discovery of genetic transposition. [e]
• Joseph Lister: (1827 – 1912) Surgeon who promoted the idea of sterile surgery. [e]
•  Carl Linnaeus: (1707–1778) Established principles for classifying plants and animals into the groupings we know as species and genera. [e]
• Lynn Margulis: Add brief definition or description
•  Gregor Mendel: (1822 - 1884) Discovered the fundamental principles of inheritance which were essential in establishing the genetic basis of heredity. [e]
•  Thomas Hunt Morgan: (1866-1945), Winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in genetics, specifically his discoveries of the role of the chromosome in heredity. [e]
•  Louis Pasteur: (1822 - 1895) Disproved abiogenesis, the theory of spontaneous generation of microbes. [e]
•  Frederick Twort: (1877 – 1950) - English bacteriologist who discovered that bacteriophages are viruses that attack and destroy bacteria. [e]
• James Watson: Add brief definition or description

Botany

•  Botany: The study of plants, algae and fungi (mycology). [e]
• Xylem: Add brief definition or description
•  Photosynthesis: Scientific term for the conversion of sunlight into energy by plants [e]
• Ethylene: Add brief definition or description

•  Action spectrum: Scientific terminology for the correlation between specific wavelengths of the light spectrum and corresponding physiological activity. [e]
• Auxin: Add brief definition or description
• Calvin cycle: Add brief definition or description
• Cellulose: Add brief definition or description
• Chlorophyll: Add brief definition or description
• Gibberellin: Add brief definition or description
• Gravitropism: Add brief definition or description
• Leaf: Add brief definition or description
• Phloem: Add brief definition or description
• Plasmolysis: Add brief definition or description
•  Root: The leafless part of a plant that is used to take up water and nutrients. [e]
• Seed: Add brief definition or description
• Starch: Add brief definition or description
• Stoma: Add brief definition or description
• Thylakoid: Add brief definition or description

Cell Biology

• Cell Biology: The study of the components of cells and their interactions. [e]
• Phospholipid bilayer: Add brief definition or description
• Flagellum: Add brief definition or description
•  Cell nucleus: Membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells, containing most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins, such as histones, to form chromosomes. [e]
• Chloroplast: Add brief definition or description
•  Mitochondrion: Structure, function, life cycle and evolutionary theories involving the origins and role of the mitochondrion. [e] -- Thomas Simmons

•  Apoptosis: Programmed cell death by which cells in a multicellular organism undergo a controlled death. [e]
• Biological membrane: An amphiphilic envelope of cells and subcellular structural units. [e]
•  Cell division: The process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. [e]
• Cell wall: A rigid enclosure (in plants, made of cellulose and pectin; in prokaryotes, generally of peptidoglycan) for a cell for structural purposes. [e]
• Cytoplasm: The content of the cell, not including the nucleus. [e]
• Cytosol: The portion of the cytoplasm that is not inside membrane-bound organelles. [e]
• Endoplasmic reticulum: Add brief definition or description
• Fluid mosaic model: Add brief definition or description
•  Golgi apparatus: An organelle in eukaryotic cells that modifies many proteins and lipids from the endoplasmic reticulum; it is named after Camillo Golgi who discovered it in 1898. [e]
• Microtubules: Add brief definition or description
•  Organelle: Specialized subunit within a cell that has a specific function, and is usually separately enclosed within its own lipid membrane, found in all eukaryotic cells. [e]
•  Phagocytosis: That part of immune response in which defensive cells such as neutrophils and macrophages surround and "digest" foreign particles [e]
• Pseudopod: Add brief definition or description
• Ribosome: Add brief definition or description
•  Signal transduction: The intercellular or intracellular transfer of information (biological activation/inhibition) through a signal pathway (U.S. National Library of Medicine). [e]
• Vacuole: Add brief definition or description
• Vesicle (biology): Add brief definition or description

Developmental Biology

• Developmental Biology: Add brief definition or description
•  Embryo: An organism in its earliest stages of development; the process of development during this period is called embryogenesis. [e]

• Calcium wave: Add brief definition or description
• Zygote: Add brief definition or description

Ecology

•  Ecology: The study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and how they are affected by the environment. [e]
•  Habitat: Place where an organism or a biological population normally lives or occurs. [e]
• Chemoautotrophic: Add brief definition or description
• Parasitism: One organism living off another, with no benefit to the host. [e]

• Carbon cycle: Add brief definition or description
•  Carnivore: An animal that eats other animals in its primary diet. [e]
• Ecological niche: Add brief definition or description
• Fundamental niche: Add brief definition or description
• Growth curve: Add brief definition or description
• Herbivore: Add brief definition or description
• Hibernation: Add brief definition or description
• Insectivores: Add brief definition or description
• Invasive species: Add brief definition or description
• Nitrogen cycle: Add brief definition or description
•  Population: Collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species, in a specifically defined area considered as a whole. [e]
• Predation: Add brief definition or description
•  Symbiosis: The interdependence of organisms belonging to different species. [e]
•  Thermocline: A boundary layer between water at different temperatures in deep bodies of water. [e]

Evolution

•  Evolution: A change over time in the proportions of individual organisms differing genetically. [e]
• Microevolution: Add brief definition or description
• Speciation: An event that produces two lineages that become separate species. [e]
• Phylogeny: Add brief definition or description
• Endosymbiosis: Add brief definition or description

•  Adaptation: Describes the event of a trait being selected by the mechanism of natural selection. [e]
• Convergent evolution: Add brief definition or description
•  Evolution of cells: The birth of cells marked the passage from pre-biotic chemistry to partitioned units resembling modern cells. [e]
• Evolutionary tree: Add brief definition or description
•  Fossilization: The set of geological processes that convert organic remains into fossils. [e]
• Genetic drift: Describes how some alleles either increase or decrease in a population due to chance events. [e]
• Homology (biology): Add brief definition or description
•  Macroevolution: Describes macroevolution, research history and emphasis and its primary focus and role in the theories of evolution. [e]
• Molecular clock: Add brief definition or description
• Monophyletic: Add brief definition or description
• Muller's ratchet: Add brief definition or description

Genetics

•  Horizontal gene transfer: Transfer of genetic material to a being other than one of the donor's offspring. [e]
•  Genetics: The study of the inheritance of characteristics, genes and DNA. [e]
•  DNA: A macromolecule that stores genetic information. Chemically, a nucleic acid. [e]
•  Mitosis: The process of eukaryotic cell division. [e]
•  Genetic code: Correlation between RNA codons and protein amino acids. [e]
• Chromosome: A compact body of DNA wrapped around proteins that is the unit of genetic material, visible only during cell division. [e]
• Mendelian inheritance: Add brief definition or description

• Acquired characteristics: Add brief definition or description
• Adaptive radiation: Add brief definition or description
•  Allele: A specific sequence of a gene, and one of a pair in a diploid cell (one per chromosome). [e]
•  Asexual reproduction: Forms of biological reproduction that do not require a prior fusion of sexually differentiated cells [e]
• Autosome: Add brief definition or description
• Centromere: Add brief definition or description
• Chiasma: Add brief definition or description
• Chromatid: Add brief definition or description
• Chromatin: Add brief definition or description
• Codon: Add brief definition or description
•  Diploid: Organism with a pair of each type of chromosome, so that the basic chromosome number is doubled. [e]
• Double helix: Add brief definition or description
•  Epigenetics: Modifications in a gene's activity, expression, and/or regulation that do not involve changes to the DNA sequence. It is possible for such differences to be inherited from one generation to the next. [e]
• Exon: Add brief definition or description
• Gamete: Add brief definition or description
• Gene duplication: Add brief definition or description
•  Gene: The functional unit of heredity. [e]
• Genetic recombination: Add brief definition or description
• Genome: The set of all genes of an organism. [e]
• Haploid: Add brief definition or description
• Heredity: Add brief definition or description
• Hermaphrodite: Add brief definition or description
• Heterochromatin: Add brief definition or description
• Heterozygote: Add brief definition or description
• Homozygote: Add brief definition or description
•  Intron: Non-coding sequence of nucleic acid that is between the expressed sequences (exons) in a gene. [e]
• Locus (genetics): Add brief definition or description
• Lyon hypothesis: Add brief definition or description
• Meiosis: Add brief definition or description
•  Metaphase: The process of eukaryotic cell division. [e]
• Mutagen: Add brief definition or description
• Oncogene: Add brief definition or description
•  Phenotype: Observable characteristic or trait of an organism, such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, or behaviour. [e]
• Punnett square: Add brief definition or description
• Quantitative trait loci: Add brief definition or description
• Recombination: Add brief definition or description
• Sexual reproduction: Add brief definition or description
• Sister chromatid: Add brief definition or description
• Splicing (genetics): Add brief definition or description
• Telomere: Add brief definition or description
•  Transposon: Blocks of conserved DNA that can occasionally move to different positions within the chromosomes of a cell. [e]
• Trait (biology): Add brief definition or description
• Wobble base pair: Add brief definition or description
• X chromosome: Add brief definition or description
• Y chromosome: Add brief definition or description

•  Microbiology: The study of microorganisms (overlapping with areas of virology, bacteriology, mycology, and parasitology). [e]

Molecular Biology

•  RNA interference: Process that inhibits the flow of genetic information to protein synthesis. [e]
• Molecular Biology: Add brief definition or description
•  Human Genome Project: Genetic sequencing project that has mapped the entirety of one human genome. [e]
•  Polymerase chain reaction: A biochemical technique used to amplify the amount of DNA obtained from a sample. [e]
• Transcription (genetics): Add brief definition or description

•  Actin: A globular protein that can polymerise to form microfilaments; essential for cell movement and muscle contraction. [e]
•  Antibiotic resistance: The development of resistance to an antibiotic in an organism originally susceptible to it [e]
•  Connexin: Family of structurally-related transmembrane proteins that assemble to form vertebrate gap junctions. [e]
• DNA replication: Add brief definition or description
• Electrophoresis: Add brief definition or description
• Enhancer: Add brief definition or description
•  Erythropoietin: A protein hormone produced by the kidneys in response to hypoxia; it is essential for normal development and maturation of red blood cells (RBC). [e]
• Homeobox: Add brief definition or description
• Lac repressor: Add brief definition or description
• Microarray: Add brief definition or description
•  Microsatellite: Polymorphic loci present in nuclear and organellar DNA that consist of repeating units of 1-6 base pairs in length. [e]
• Non-coding RNA: Add brief definition or description
•  Nucleic acid: A class of macromolecules important in conveying genetic information. [e]
• Nucleotide: Add brief definition or description
• Okazaki fragment: Add brief definition or description
• Operon: Add brief definition or description
•  Oxytocin: A mammalian hormone that is secreted into the bloodstream from the posterior pituitary gland, and which is also released into the brain where it has effects on social behaviors. [e]
• Plasmid: Add brief definition or description
• Promoter: Add brief definition or description
•  Restriction enzyme: Enzymes (proteins) that cut DNA at specific DNA base sequences, typically 4-6 base pairs in length. [e]
•  RNA: A polymer, made using the nucleotides of adenosine, guanosine, uridine and cytidine, that is used for a variety of biological functions in living systems. [e]
• Transcription factor: Add brief definition or description
• Transformation (genetics): Add brief definition or description

Physiology

•  Physiology: The study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of tissues and how they interact. [e]
•  Homeostasis (biology): The coordinated physiological reactions which maintain most of the steady states in an organism. [e]
• Osmosis: Add brief definition or description
• Circadian rhythm: Add brief definition or description

•  Action potential: A brief change in voltage that travels along a cell membrane. [e]
•  Hormone: A chemical director of biological activity that travels through some portion of the body as a messenger. [e]
•  Neurotransmitter: A class of chemicals which relay, amplify or modulate electrical signals between a neuron and other cells in the nervous system. [e]
•  Stress (physiology): Pathological process resulting from the reaction of the body to external forces and conditions that tend to disturb the organism's homeostasis. [e]
•  Neuron: An excitable cell that is specialized to conduct nerve impulses. [e]
• Pregnancy: Add brief definition or description
• Reproduction: Add brief definition or description
• Senescence: Add brief definition or description
• Thermoregulation: Add brief definition or description
• Appetite: Add brief definition or description
• Vision: Add brief definition or description

•  Systems biology: The study of biological systems as a whole. [e]

Taxonomy

•  Taxonomy: The principles underlying classification, often in a hierarchy. [e]
•  Organism: An individual living individual: a complex, adaptive physical system that acts a integrated unit that sustains metabolism and reproduces progeny that resemble it. [e]
• Phylogeny: Add brief definition or description
•  Systematics: The study of the diversity of organism characteristics, and how they relate via evolution. [e]

• Amniota: Add brief definition or description
•  Animal: A multicellular organism that feeds on other organisms, and is distinguished from plants, fungi, and unicellular organisms. [e]
•  Archaea: A major group of numerous microorganisms fundamentally different from the bacteria and including many chemolithotrophs and extremophiles. [e]
•  Bacteria: A major group of single-celled microorganisms. [e]
•  Bacteriophage: A virus that infects bacteria; often called a phage. [e]
• Cyanobacteria: Add brief definition or description
• Drosophila melanogaster: Add brief definition or description
•  Eukaryote: An organism that is composed of one or more cells containing cell nuclei. [e]
•  Microorganism: A 'germ', an organism that is too small to be seen individually with the naked eye. [e]
•  Plant: A eukaryotic organism, grouped into the kingdom Plantae, that typically synthesizes nutrients through photosynthesis and possesses the inability to voluntarily move. [e]
•  Prokaryote: Single celled organism with no membrane-bound organelles. [e]
•  Protist: A unicellular organism grouped into the kingdom Protista that may have characteristics of plants and/or animals. [e]
• Vertebrata: Add brief definition or description

•  Rabbit: Long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. [e]
•  Dog: Domesticated animal often kept as a pet or as a working animal. [e]
•  Rottweiler: A large breed of dog known for its great physical strength and strong protective instinct. [e]
•  Wheat: Grass crop grown worldwide and used in making flour and fermentation for alcohol production. [e]