Unit 1: Applications of Biology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the applications of biology in conservation, biotechnology, agriculture, industry, medicine, environmental remediation, and sustainable development.

Natural Resources

Actual and potential physical supplies provided by nature, including soil, water, air, plants, animals, gold, and platinum.

Conservation

The act of protecting and restoring biodiversity, as well as ensuring the careful maintenance and wise use of natural resources.

Renewable Resources

Resources—predominantly living organisms and their products, as well as solar, wind, water, geothermal heat, and biomass—that are produced indefinitely and can be used, reused, and replaced.

Non-Renewable Resources

Finite natural supplies that exist in definite quantities and cannot be replaced once depleted, such as metals (gold, iron) and fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal).

Food Security

A condition in which all individuals have uninterrupted physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs.

Forms of Malnutrition

Pathological nutritional conditions including overnutrition (too fat for height and age), wasting (too thin for height), stunting (too short for age), and micronutrient deficiencies.

Conscious Citizen

A person who values being fully human and actively participates in sustainable development through the protection, management, and monitoring of resources.

Model for Sustainable Development

An integrated framework uniting social equity, economic efficiency, and environmental preservation to ensure long-term community well-being and resource viability.

Biotechnology

The application of technological procedures using living organisms or their subcellular components to manufacture products that benefit humanity.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Organisms that have received novel genetic material through recombinant DNA technology.

Transgenic Organism

An organism that has successfully integrated foreign genetic material originating from an entirely different species.

Pruteen

A commercial, high-protein animal feed produced by the large-scale mass culture of the bacterium Methylophilus methylotrophus.

Mycoprotein

A protein-rich human food product produced from the mycelial biomass of the fungus Fusarium venenatum.

Spirulina

A genus of cyanobacteria utilized as a viable, protein- and nutrient-dense alternative to green plants as a primary nutrient source.

Cultured Buttermilk

A dairy product made by inoculating pasteurized skim milk with Streptococcus cremoris and allowing it to ferment.

Tissue Culture

A biological technique where fragments of animal or plant tissue are transferred to an artificial nutrient medium to survive, function, and propagate in large numbers.

Bacteriostatic Antibiotics

Substances that arrest bacterial growth by preventing cellular division and reproduction without directly killing the bacteria.

Bacteriocidal Antibiotics

Antimicrobial agents that directly eliminate and kill susceptible bacterial cells.

Biosensors

Analytical bioelectronic devices that integrate living organisms, enzymes, or organelles with electrodes to translate biochemical reactions into detectable electrical signals.

Forensic DNA Profiling

A method using PCR amplification of polymorphic repetitive chromosome loci and subsequent gel electrophoresis to match criminal evidence to individual suspects.

Biohydrometallurgy

Microbiological mining using chemolithotrophic, acidophilic bacteria like Thiobacillus ferrooxidans to oxidize sulfides and extract water-soluble pure metals from low-grade ores.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

A quantitative measure of the amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by aerobic microorganisms to oxidize the organic content present in a water sample.

Primary Wastewater Treatment

A physical stage in sewage processing involving bar screens and grit tanks followed by sedimentation, removing floating debris and up to one-third of the initial BOD.

Wastewater Treatment System

A multi-stage biological purification process combining mechanical debris removal, aerobic oxidation, anaerobic sludge digestion, and UV or chlorine disinfection.

Trickling Filter

An aerobic wastewater filtration unit where effluent passes over rocks or plastic coated with a microbial biofilm, reducing the BOD by $80\text{ to }85\%$.

Activated Sludge

An aerobic wastewater treatment technique where water is aerated in tanks seeded with a mixed microbial floc, achieving significant reductions in organic load and BOD.

Bioremediation

The deployment of living organisms or their enzymes to detoxify, degrade, and remove harmful chemical pollutants from contaminated environments.

Biotransformation

The molecular alteration or structural modification of a toxic pollutant into a less hazardous compound carried out by microbial enzymes.

Biofuels

Renewable combustible fuels, primarily ethanol, synthesized through the microbial fermentation of plant carbohydrates such as corn starch, cellulose, and hemicellulose.

Biogas

A combustible fuel composed mostly of methane ($CH_4$) and carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) produced by the anaerobic digestion of organic matter by bacteria and methanogenic archaea.

Biogas Digester

An anaerobic domed containment vessel that converts farm waste, human sewage, and manure into methane fuel while generating nutrient-rich fertilizer slurry.

Fermentation Enzyme Extraction

An industrial manufacturing method using stirred bioreactors to grow microbes, yielding intracellular enzymes via cell filtration or extracellular enzymes from the liquid filtrate.

Biological Washing Powders

Laundry detergents containing proteases and lipases that enzymatically break down insoluble proteins and lipids into small, water-soluble products at low washing temperatures.

Biopesticides

Biological formulations containing living bacteria, fungi, viruses, or their toxins used specifically to infect and control agricultural insect pests.

Ti Plasmid Vector Transformation

A genetic transformation protocol utilizing the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid to introduce herbicide resistance and marker genes into cultured plant cells to form transgenic calluses.

BT-Cotton

A transgenic cotton cultivar engineered with insecticidal delta-endotoxin genes from Bacillus thuringiensis to withstand severe attacks by insect pests such as the boll weevil.

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

A cloning procedure involving the enucleation of an unfertilized egg, electro-fusion with an adult somatic donor cell, and surrogate gestation, which generated Dolly the sheep.

Biological Warfare

The hostile use of pathogenic microorganisms or biological toxins to kill, incapacitate, or sicken humans, animals, or agricultural crops.