bio-, bi-, -bia, -bial, -bian, -bion, -biont, -bius, -biosis, -bium, -biotic, -biotical +

1. The directed reaction of a motile organism towards (positive) or away from (negative) a biological stimulus.
2. The classification of living beings according to their anatomical characteristics.

A robot that can work only in conjunction with a human operator.

The practical application of discoveries in the biological sciences.

A professional who uses living organisms, or other biological systems, in the manufacture of drugs, or other products, or for environmental management; such as, in waste recycling.

1. The branch of technology concerned with the development and exploitation of machines in relation to the various needs of human beings.
2. The branch of technology concerned with modern forms of industrial production utilizing living organisms, especially micro-organisms, and their biological processes; including such ancient endeavors as the use of yeast in preparing bread for baking, and such modern concepts as genetic engineering.
3. The application of technology to biological processes for industrial, agricultural, and medical purposes.

Examples include bacteria; such as, Penicillium and Streptomycin are used to produce antibiotics and fermenting yeasts produce alcohol in beer and wine manufacture.

Genetic engineering now enables the large-scale production of hormones, blood serum proteins, and other medically important products.

Genetic modification of farm crops offers improved protection against pests, or products with novel characteristics; such as, new flavors, colors, or extended storage properties.

Biotechnology.

1. Study of the behavior and activity of organisms using remote detection and transmission equipment; radio tracking.
2. The technique of monitoring vital processes and transmitting data without wires to a point remote from the subject.
3. The tracking of a free-ranging animal, or the monitoring of one or more of its physiological conditions, by beans of electronic equipment that receives signals from a radio transmitter or similar device attached to, or embedded in the animal.

The use of biological agents for terrorism.

The term bioterror is often used loosely to describe nuclear, biological, and/or chemical (NBC) terrorism.

The U.S. government is especially worried about the Big Six bioterrorism threats: anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, botulism toxin, and viral hemorrhagic fevers (like the Ebola virus).

While less well-known than the other diseases, tularemia and botulism toxins could conceivably be aerosolized, causing severe respiratory illness and paralysis, respectively.

A terrorist who uses biological weapons.

Not only water supplies are susceptible to such deliberate contamination; so too is much of the air we breathe.

Skyscrapers, tunnels, subways, and their requisite heating and air-conditioning systems provide targets and also avenues of attack for would-be bioterrorists.

An older term for suicide.

1. Treatment using biological agents, almost always those made by genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is central to modern biotherapy’s backbone: pharmaceutical biotechnology. Pharmaceutical biotechnology involves using microorganisms, macroscopic organisms, or hybrids of tumor cells and leukocytes.
2. Virtually all biotherapeutic agents in clinical use are biotech pharmaceuticals. A biotech pharmaceutical is simply any medically useful drug whose manufacture involves microorganisms or substances that living organisms produce (e.g., enzymes). Most biotech pharmaceuticals are recombinant‹that is, produced by genetic engineering. Insulin was among the earliest recombinant drugs.
3. In psychology, any form of treatment for abnormal behavior that alters the individual’s physiological processes; such as, electric shock treatment or surgery.
4. The treatment of disease with biologicals, that is, materials produced by living organisms.

Pertaining to the inter-relationship of temperature and living organisms.

An instrument for measuring the vibratory-perception threshold.

1. A reference to common life; secular.
2. Pertaining to life or living organisms; caused by, produced by, or comprising living organisms.

1. The biological factors acting on an organism, which arise from the activities of other living organisms, as distinct from physical factors.
2. The living organisms of a community habitat or environment.

If you would like to take a series of self-scoring quizzes over some of the words in this bio- unit, then click this Bio-Quiz link so you can check your knowledge. You may also try several additional quizzes in this listing.