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
biogeosphere (s ) (noun) (no pl)
In ecology, that part of the lithosphere within which living organisms can exist: The biogeosphere is the region of the earth that reaches from the surface of the top crust down to the maximum depth in which organisms can live.
biogerontologist (s), biogerontologists (pl) (nouns)
Scientists who investigate the aging process and who do scientific studies of the biological, psychological, and sociological phenomena that are associated with old age and aging: "Some biogerontologists promote the idea that aging is a programmed phase of decline following the plateau of maturity."

"When biogerontologists attempt to take cells from organisms, whether plants or animals, and grow them in test tubes, old age soon overtakes the cultures and the cells stop dividing, and so the cultures die."

biogerontology (s) (noun)
A sub-field of gerontology (study of the social, psychological, and biological aspects of aging) that is concerned with the living processes of aging: "Biogerontology involves interdisciplinary research on biological aging's causes, effects, and mechanisms."

"Cells from old organisms are different from cells of young ones, and observations about how they differ are the basis of biogerontology, a science of the biology of aging."

bioglass
A ceramic-glass material used as a bone prosthesis.

Living bone fuses with it because chemically it resembles hydroxyapatite (an inorganic constituent of bone matrix and teeth, imparting rigidity to these structures).

bioglyph
A sedimentary structure consisting of a fossilized remnant or mark formed in soft sediment by the movement of an animal and pressed in sedimentary rock.
biognosis
The investigation of life which results in knowing about life.
biognosy
A proposed general term for the “life-sciences”.
biograph (s) (noun), biographs (pl)
1. A written presentation of a biography or life stories.
2. An instrument for analyzing and rendering visible the movements of animals; used in diagnosis of certain nervous diseases.
biographee (s) (noun), biographees (pl)
1. The contents of a biography.
2. The person whose life is described in a biography.
biographer (s) (noun), biographers (pl)
Someone who writes about the lives of other people and excluding oneself.
biographic (adjective), more biographic, most biographic
1. A reference to an account of someone’s life in the form of a book, movie, or television program, written or produced by another person.
2. Descriptive term for books about people’s lives, considered as a whole or as a type of literature.
Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.
—Soren Kierkegaard
biographical (adjective), more biographical, most biographical
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with a biography or the written account of another person's life.
2. Referring to, or pertaining to, people's lives when writing about them.
biographically
biography (s) (noun), biographies (pl)
1. The history of the lives of individual men and women, as a branch of literature.
2. The written record of the life of an individual.
3. The life-course of a man or other living being; the “life-history” of an animal or plant.

This is the best biography by me I have ever read.

—Lawrence Welk

A biography is a book that is usually written about a dead person because it is so unlike him when he was alive.

—Evan Esar
biogravics
That field of study dealing with the effect on living organisms (particularly man) of abnormal gravitational effects produced; that is, by acceleration or by free fall; in the former case, heavier than normal weight is induced, and in the latter weightlessness.
Quiz If you would like to take a series of self-scoring quizzes over some of the words in this bio- unit, then click this Life, Live, Living Quiz link so you can check your knowledge. You may also try several additional quizzes in this listing.

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