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
coprobiontic
cryobiologist
A specialist in the effects of low temperatures on biological systems.
cryobiology
1. The study of the effects of low temperatures on living organisms or biological systems; especially, warm-blooded animals.
2. The study of life and its constituents below its normal living temperature, including cryogenic temperatures (below -80 degrees Centigrade).
cryobiosis
In physiology, the carrying on of bodily functions at low temperatures.
cryptobios
Organisms that are typically hidden or concealed in crevices or under stones.
cryptobiosis
1. The condition in which all external signs of metabolic activity are absent from a dormant organism.
2. Latent life; the state of an organism showing no visible signs of life.
3. The condition of an organism that must in theory have at one time existed, but that has left no fossil traces.
4. A state in which the signs of life of an organism have weakened to the point where they are barely measurable or no longer measurable.
cryptobiotic
A reference to organisms that are typically hidden or concealed in crevices or under stones.
cytobiotaxis
The influence of one cell on another.

A form of energy, totally unrelated to electricity, light, heat, or sound, which is generated by living tissues; the vital principle in all living tissues. The term was first introduced in 1923 by Frederic Wood Jones, who defined it as "the influence of body cells on other body cells"; the “call of cell to cell”.

dark biology
Scientific research related to biological weapons.

The phrase "dark biology" was coined by the science writer and novelist Richard Preston in his self-described "trilogy on dark biology": The Hot Zone (1994), The Cobra Event (1997), and The Demon In the Freezer (2002).

dimorphobiotic
1. The existence of distinct genetically determined forms of the same species; such as, distinct male and female forms or distinct young and mature forms.
2. Characterized by a regular alternation of parasitic and nonparasitic phases, as in the life cycle of gordian (long slender worms found in water whose larva live as parasites on arthropods) or horsehair worms (nematode worms that live as parasites in the digestive tracts of domestic animals).
ecobiology
The study of the relationships of organisms to their natural environments.
ecobiosis
The conditions pertaining to a mode of life within a specific habitat.
ecobiotic
ectosymbiont
An organism that lives on the surface of another organism to the benefit of both; such as, any of the microbes that normally live on the skin.
ectosymbiont
Symbiosis in which one symbiont lives on the outside of the body of the other.
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-.