bio-, bi-, -bia, -bial, -bian, -bion, -biont, -bius, -biosis, -bium, -biotic, -biotical +
(Greek: life; living, live, alive)
Don’t confuse this element with another bi- which means "two".
The most important things in life are not
things.
—Anonymous
bioanthropology
A branch of anthropology that deals with humans as biological organisms, including areas; such as, primatology, human genetics, human ecology, paleoanthropology, and fields of applied anthropology including anthropometrics and forensic anthropology.
bioarchaeology, bioarcheology
1. The use of a range of biological techniques on archaeological material in order to learn more about past populations.
2. A subdiscipline of biology that integrates the concepts of human biology with those of anthropological archaeology.
In bioarchaeology, one might isolate and amplify DNA from very old bones; such as, from the frozen body of the 9,000-year-old "Ice Man" who was found in the Italian Alps.
bioarcheology
A discipline in which the concepts of human biology are integrated with anthropological archeology.
bioassay
1. Determination of the potency or concentration of a compound by its effect upon animals, isolated tissues, or microorganisms, as compared with an analysis of its chemical or physical properties.
2. An experimental technique for measuring quantitatively the strength of a biologically active chemical by its effects on a living organism.
3. Using living organisms to measure the quantity and effect; especially, toxic effect, of a substance, factor, or condition.
- The vitamin activity of certain substances can be measured using bacterial cultures.
- The increase in bacterial numbers is compared against that achieved with known standards for vitamins.
- Plant growth hormones can be estimated by their effect in causing curvature of oat coleoptiles (a sheathlike structure that protects the developing plumule [first rudimentary leaves in the mature embryo and seedling] in grasses).
bioassessment
Monitoring the aquatic environment to determine the health of a stream.
bioastronautic
A reference to the study of biological, behavioral, and medical problems related to astronautics.
bioastronautical
A reference to biological science as applied to space travel.
bioastronautics
1. The study of the effects of space travel and space habitation on living organisms.
2. The study of biological, behavioral, and medical problems related to astronautics.
bioastronomy
The study of the possibility of life in the universe other than on earth.
bioautography
1. A bioassay of certain compounds, usually antibiotics or vitamins, by evaluating their ability to enhance the growth of some organism and to repress that of others.
2. Classification of organic material by using solid absorbents that have affinities for specific elements.
3. An analytical technique in which organic compounds are separated by chromatography and identified by studying their effects on microorganisms.
bioavailability
1. The physiological availability of a given amount of a drug, as distinct from its chemical potency; proportion of the administered dose which is absorbed into the bloodstream.
2. The degree to which a drug administered is distributed throughout the body and thus available for action at the desired receptor sites.
3. The extent to which a nutrient or medication can be used by the body.
Bioavailability is used to determine whether different brand-name drugs, a generic name as opposed to a brand-name drug, or, in some cases, different batches of the same brand name drug, will produce the same therapeutic effects.
biobased, bio-based
Having a biological source; describing materials, especially plastics, that are fully or partially produced from biomass-derived feed stocks.
biobehavioral
A reference to the application of biological methods and ideas to the study of behavior in an attempt to understand emotions and reactions in term of brain and physiological function.
biobehavioral sciences
Any of the various branches of the life sciences; such as, neurobiology, neurochemistry, or neuroendocrinologiy, that deal with biological aspects of behavior.
biobelt
A device worn by an astronaut around the waist to record and transmit data on his/her physiological processes to mission control.

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Related life, live-word units:
anima-;
-cole;
vita-;
viva-.