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.
2. A parasitic or predatory plant; or plants that get sustenance from living organisms.
2. The commercial development of naturally occurring biological materials, such as plant substances or genetic cell lines, by a technologically advanced country, or an organization without fair compensation to the peoples or nations in whose territory the materials were originally discovered.
Biopiracy includes the patenting of plants, genes, and other biological products that are indigenous to a foreign country. For example, some developing tropical nations are saying that if the West cries foul over piracy of intellectual property or computer software, then biopiracy in Western labs of jungle extracts should also be considered a high economic crime.
Biopiracy usually refers to the privatization and unauthorized use of biological resources by entities (including corporations, universities, and governments) outside of a country that have pre-existing knowledge. This privatization and use is sometimes claimed to be predatory. Particular activities usually covered by the term are exclusive commercial rights to plants, animals, organs, microorganisms, and genes, as well as commercialization of traditional communities' knowledge on biological resources; and patenting of biological resources.
Here is a biopiracy article that presents an example of this topic.
Protoplasm is the viscid, translucent, polyphasic colloid with water as the continuous phase that makes up the essential material of all plant and animal cells.
Singapore, with its Biopolis project, is pulling in top biomedical scientists because "what's going on over there is amazing. There's plenty of funding and a lot less bureaucracy." Moreover, "In the U.S. the state government says, Let's do one thing, while the Federal Government is trying to stamp it out." Singapore, by contrast, has a single set of reasonably permissive regulations.
2. The origin of life, including the abiotic synthesis of macromolecular systems and the transformation (eobiogenesis) of these systems into the first living organisms (eobionts).
3. The origin of organisms from replicating molecules.
Primarily used to refer to theories about the chemical origin of life; such as, from a primordial sea, and most probably through a number of intermediate steps; such as, non-living but self-replicating molecules.
2. Biodegradable polymer produced by living organisms; for example, polysaccharide gums (xanthans) produced by the bacterium Xanthomonas.
3. A polymer found in nature; for example, starch, proteins and peptides, and DNA and RNA.