mindmap root((BIO)) bionic Made stronger or more capable by electronic or mechanical devices.
🌱Bionic feet and hands for amputees have ceased to be mere sci-fi fantasies and are becoming realities. 🌳The science of bionics uses knowledge about how biological systems work to help solve engineering problems. The material Velcro, for example, was inspired by the way burrs behave when they stick to your clothes, and some computer chips are now wired in ways that imitate the "wiring" of the brain and nervous system. But in popular use, the adjective bionic almost always describes artificial limbs or other bodily parts that work as much like real ones as possible. A perfect bionic arm would move and function as easily as a real arm—a goal we're rapidly getting closer to. biopsy The removal and examination of tissue, cells, or fluids from a living body.
🌱Everyone felt relieved when the results of the biopsy showed the tumor wasn't cancerous. 🌳Matter examined in a biopsy is always taken from a living organism. Most biopsies are done by using a needle to extract tissue or fluid, but some may instead require cutting, and others may amount to nothing more than swabbing the inside of the patient's cheek. Biopsies are best known as a means of detecting cancer, but a doctor may also take a biopsy of heart muscle to investigate suspected heart disease, for example, or perform a biopsy on a pregnant woman to test for disorders in the fetus. biodegradable Able to be broken down into harmless substances by microorganisms or other living things.
🌱Though the advertisements promised that the entire package was biodegradable, environmentalists expressed their doubts. 🌳In biodegradable, with its root grad,"to step or move," and its prefix de-"downward," we get an adjective describing things that can be broken down into basic substances through normal environmental processes. Animal and plant products are normally biodegradable, but mineral substances such as metals, glass, and plastics usually are not. Newly developed biodegradable plastics are now appearing in numerous products. However, "biodegradable" products can vary greatly in how long they take to break down. A loaf of bread may require only a couple of weeks, and a piece of paper may vanish in a couple of months, but some "biodegradable" plastic milk cartons may take four or five years. symbiosis 1、 The close living together of two different forms of life in a way that benefits both.
2、 A cooperative relationship between two people or groups.
🌱The lichen that grows on rocks is produced by the symbiosis of a fungus and an alga, two very different organisms. 🌳With its prefix sym-,"with," symbiosis expresses the notion of cooperation between living things. Symbiotic associations are found throughout the plant and animal world. You may have read, for instance, of the little blackbird plover, which picks the teeth of the fierce African crocodile. Or the bird called the African honeyguide, which leads a little mammal called the ratel to a bees' nest, which the ratel, protected from the bees by its thick fur, then breaks open, and both it and the honeyguide feast on the honey. Or even our own bodies, which are home to millions of bacteria—especially the bacterium E. coli in our intestines—and neither we nor E. coli could live without the other. You can probably think of plenty of human relationships that could be called symbiotic as well.