Forensic DNA Analysis - Biology Encyclopedia

Forensic DNA analysis is the use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) specimens in legal proceedings. Just as people can leave fingerprints when they touch An agent works on DNA evidence at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic lab in Lakewood.

Forest, Boreal - Biology Encyclopedia

Boreal forests are the northernmost forests in the world. These are vast forests that include 29 percent of all the world's forest area in a belt around the Northern Hemisphere, including Scandinavia, Russia, and Canada.

Forest, Temperate - Biology Encyclopedia

Temperate forests occur in a latitudinal belt between tropical and boreal forests. Most of the world's temperate forests are in the Northern Hemisphere, although Southern Hemisphere occurrences are found in Chile, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.

Forest, Tropical - Biology Encyclopedia

With their towering trees and tiny orchids, great apes and minute insects, tropical forests are magnificent expressions of nature. Tropical forests may contain half the species on Earth, but many of those species will disappear because of continuous deforestation.

Forester - Biology Encyclopedia

In common parlance any person who has something to do with raising and managing forest timber resources is in some sense a forester. Foresters go back in history to individuals responsible for managing the harvest of trees on the property of castles and estates and for the management and disposition of the valuable timber asset.

Fruits - Biology Encyclopedia

Fruits are produced only by flowering plants (angiosperms). Following pollination of the flower, the fertilized ovules develop into seeds while the surrounding ovary wall forms the fruit tissue, or pericarp.

Fungal Diseases - Biology Encyclopedia

About fifty fungal species cause human disease, usually by one of three major mechanisms. First, some fungi cause an immune response, resulting in hypersensitivity (allergic) reactions to the fungi.

Fungi - Biology Encyclopedia

Fungi are eukaryotic organisms distinct from plants and animals and members of several other smaller kingdoms. Common fungi include mushrooms, conks, corals, jellies, puffballs, stinkhorns, morels, cups, truffles, lichens, yeasts, rusts, smuts, bread molds, mildews, and molds on bathroom tiles.

Gas Exchange - Biology Encyclopedia

Gas exchange is the process by which oxygen and carbon dioxide (the respiratory gases) move in opposite directions across an organism's respiratory membranes, between the air or water of the external environment and the body fluids of the internal environment. Oxygen is needed by cells to extract energy from organic molecules, such as sugars, fatty acids, and amino acids.

Gene - Biology Encyclopedia

Considering the central role that genes play in the understanding of biology, it is surprising that no single, simple definition of a gene exists. This is partly because genes are under multiple evolutionary constraints, and partly because the concept of a gene has both structural and functional aspects that do not always align perfectly.

Gene Therapy - Biology Encyclopedia

Gene therapy is an experimental disease treatment in which a gene is delivered to cells in the body. The protein made by the new gene compensates for the absence of normal proteins or interacts with some abnormal protein already in the cell to interrupt its function.

Genetic Analysis - Biology Encyclopedia

Genetic analysis refers to experimental procedures designed to identify the genes influencing physical characteristics in organisms and to study their patterns of inheritance. Historically, genetic analysis originated as a standard program of breeding experiments, first performed and interpreted in a systematic quantitative manner by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, the founder of the science of genetics.

Genetic Code - Biology Encyclopedia

The genetic code allows an organism to translate the genetic information found in its chromosomes into usable proteins. Stretches of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are built from four different nucleotide bases, while proteins are made from twenty unique subunits called amino acids.

Genetic Control of Development - Biology Encyclopedia

The transformation of a single-celled zygote (product of the union between egg and sperm) to a multicellular embryo and then to an adult organism is a complex and amazing process. A fully developed organism has many different cell types that serve many different functions.

Genetic Counselor - Biology Encyclopedia

A genetic counselor is a medical professional who serves as a liaison between an individual or family and a physician or medical team. The counselor interprets genetic test results and provides information to help patients make medical or lifestyle choices, based on knowledge gained from genetic tests.

Genetic Diseases - Biology Encyclopedia

A genetic disease is due to a faulty gene or group of genes. While not all gene defects cause disease, many do.

Genome - Biology Encyclopedia

The genetic material of an organism consists of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). A gene is a segment of DNA that encodes a protein (or a structural ribonucleic acid [RNA] for example, ribosomal RNA), along with the regulatory elements that control expression of that gene.

Genomics - Biology Encyclopedia

Genomics is the study of the genome, or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), of an organism and associated technologies. Genomics evolved from a series A scientist using a computer to design complex proteins.

Global Climate Change - Biology Encyclopedia

Energy from the Sun passes through the atmosphere as light and is absorbed by soil, rock, and water at the surface of Earth. The energy is reradiated as heat and absorbed in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and the human-made chemicals chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Glycolysis and Fermentation - Biology Encyclopedia

Glycolysis is an anaerobic metabolic pathway, found in the cytosol of all cells, which forms adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by degrading glucose. It also serves as a source of precursors for other pathways, and as a recipient of products of various pathways for use as metabolic fuels.

Golgi - Biology Encyclopedia

The Golgi (pronounced GOL-jee) complex (or Golgi apparatus or Golgi body) was discovered by Camillo Golgi (1844–1926), an Italian physician. While Dr.

Grain - Biology Encyclopedia

Grains are seeds of grasses. More particularly, the term "grains" usually refers to the cereal grains, those that are used as food or fodder by humans.