biology

taxonomy
- In biology, a taxon (plural taxa; back-formation from taxonomy) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and given a particular ranking, especially if and when it is accepted or becomes established. It is not uncommon, however, for taxonomists to remain at odds over what belongs to a taxon and the criteria used for inclusion. If a taxon is given a formal scientific name, its use is then governed by one of the nomenclature codes specifying which scientific name is correct for a particular grouping. Although preceded by Linnaeus's system in Systema Naturae (10th edition, 1758) and unpublished work by Bernard and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, the notion of a unit-based "natural system" of biological classification was first made widely available in 1805 through the publication, as the introduction to the third edition of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's Flore françoise, of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle's Principes élémentaires de botanique, an exposition of a system for the "natural classification" of plants. Since then, systematists have striven to construct an accurate classification encompassing the diversity of life; today, a "good" or "useful" taxon is commonly taken to be one that reflects evolutionary relationships.
- useful reference 

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life
• 英國劍橋大學植物園蘊藏豐富的植物資源，植物園園長早前建立一個龐大的植物數據庫，將園內一萬四千株植物的資料首次放上網，供科研人員和公眾免費搜索。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20201025/00180_033.html

- 6 kingdoms of life

• Archaea
• Bacteria
• Eukarya / Eukaryota

• Protista
• Fungi
• Plantae
• Animalia

- The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms.WoRMS was founded in 2008 and grew out of the European Register of Marine Species. and the UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms (URMO), which was compiled by Jacob van der Land (and several colleagues) at the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden  It is primarily funded by the European Union and hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend, Belgium. WoRMS has established formal agreements with several other biodiversity projects, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the Encyclopedia of Life. In 2008, WoRMS stated that it hoped to have an up-to-date record of all marine species completed by 2010, the year in which the Census of Marine Life was completed.


Organisation of life
- cellular level

• Atoms
• Molecules
• Macromolecules
• Organelles
• Cells

- organismal level

• Tissue
• Organ
• Organ/nervous system
• Organism

- population level

• Population
• Species
• Community
• Ecosystem

Differences between plants and animals
- cell of plants surrounded by cell wall, animal cell by membrane
- plants (excl bacteria, fungi) usually contain chorophyll but not animal (excl green hydra)
- plants with chlorophyll able to make own food (sugar from co2 and h2o) but animals do not
- animals move from place to place, plant remain in one place
- animals grow to a limited size but plants continue to grow as size is unlimited
- growth in animals goes on all over the body, in plants there are special growing regions

Plants 
- flowerless plants that do not produce seeds, produce spores from which new plants grow

• Monocotyledons - seeds contain only one cotyledon and leaves are parallel veined
• dicotyledons - seeds have two cotyledon and leaves are net veined

- plants that do produce seeds

• Conifers, seeds with no outer shell
• flowering plants, seeds protected by seed box

[eckstut] plants containing ample quantities of chlorophyll reflect leftover medium wavelengths (green).Plants use two kinds of chlorophyll - blue-green chlirophyll a, which absorbs violet blue and orange-red light, and yellow-green chlorophyll b, which absorbs blue and orange light. anthocyanin has a particularly strong ph gauge, can turn blue hydrangea red (if soil is alkaline) or pink hydrangea blue (if soil is acidic), in violet colour if soil is neutral. melanin cause spots on bananas, flesh of cut apple that's been left out uncovered, plethora of brown mushrooms that span from pale beige to deep wenge

- different colors attract different animals. Bright red flowers are pollinated almost exclusively by  birds with excellentbred color vision. Ultraviolet flowers are particularly attractive to bees that can see this far along the electromagnetic spectrum. Pinks and lavenders are favourites of butterflies. Strongly scented pale or white flowers are beloved by bats and moths, who have very poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell.

photosynthesis

- [andrew c scott] chemical equation - 6co2 +6h2o+solar energy --> CH12O2+6O2. Early vascular land plants produced vascular tissue that comprises several cell types which transports food for plant.

plant reproduction

- [andrew c scott] Plants developed a reproductive strategy that involved producing spores. These spores were shed by the plant (known as the sporophyte) onto the damp soil surface.  Here they developed into small predominantly underground gametophytes, which produced the male and female sex organs. sperm from male gametophyte swam in the damp soil to reach and fertilize the female gametophyte and a new generation of plant, the sporophyte, was produced.  This type of reproduction can be seen in ferns today. Through the subsequent period of geological time, the devonian (419-358 million years ago), plants evolved a number of new strategies that allowed them to spread into new environments and increased potential for fuel loads.  Plants evolved a range of growth habits that helped in their spread. One of these was to reproduce by a mechanism known as clonal growth (where the plant reproduces vegetatively from a single individual).  In such cases the plants may be connected underground.  The leaf is another structural evolvement - increasing area available via leaves to capture sunlight and photosynthesize, some shade on soil surface is also created and led to further diversification of plants adapted an ever-increasing range of habitats. The spores that produce male and female gametophytes became differentiated, with those that evolve into female gametophytes growing bigger, into megaspores enccased in ovules, and becoming retained on the plants and only released when they were fertilized to form a seed. The development of seeds allowed the plant to provide an increased food reserve for the new plant and to release it from te need to grow in damp soil. The seed habit allowed plants to grow and thrive in much drier habitats.

botanists
- Stephen Troyte Dunn (26 August 1868, Bristol - 18 April, 1938, Sheen, Surrey, England) was a British botanist. He described and systematized a significant number of plants around the world, his input most noticeable in the taxonomy of the flora of China. Among the plants he first scientifically described was Bauhinia blakeana, the national flower of Hong Kong.Born in Bristol in the family of Rev. James Dunn, of Northern Irish descent, S. T. Dunn was educated at Radley, and at Merton College, Oxford, where he earned his BA in classics.He was private secretary to liberal politician Thomas Acland in 1897, and the next year (as in 1898 Thomas Acland died) he first joined Kew as private secretary to the director, W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. He was then assistant for India in the herbarium from 1901 until his departure for Hong Kong in 1903. At Kew prior to this, he worked on compiling the second supplement of Index Kewensis that was issued in 1904-1905. While superintendent at the Department of Botany and Forestry, Hong Kong (1903-1910), Stephen Dunn would go on expeditions and make many collections in Asia, including Taiwan, Guangdong province and Fujian Province, as well as in Korea and Japan. He was especially interested in ferns. After returning to England, he became an official guide at Kew in 1913, but left Britain again in 1915 for America. Returning four years later, he went back to the Kew herbarium, where he remained until his retirement in 1928. Among his published works were many articles on the Chinese flora as well as flora of Britain. He was a regular contributor to Journal of the Linnean Society.The standard author abbreviation Dunn is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.


earth

- [eckstut] soil's colors depend on degree of oxidation. Lighter colired orange, red and brown soils tend to be well oxidised and darker blue and black soils, less so. Soils that are totally leached of oraganic matter are very light. Bone-white soil is leached of everything orbcomprises calcite (calcium carbonate).
- 黑鈣土 Chernozem (Russian: Чернозём, tr. chernozyom, IPA: [tɕɪrnɐˈzʲom]; "black soil" is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphoric acids, phosphorus, and ammonia. Chernozem is very fertile and can produce high agricultural yields with its high moisture storage capacity. The name comes from the Russian terms for black and soil, earth or land (chorny + zemlya). The soil, rich in organic matter presenting a black color, was first identified by Russian geologist Vasily Dokuchaev in 1883 in the tallgrass steppe or prairie of European Russia. Chernozems cover about 230 million hectares of land. There are two "chernozem belts" in the world. One is the Eurasian steppe which extends from eastern Croatia (Slavonia), along the Danube (northern Serbia, northern Bulgaria (Danubian Plain), southern Romania (Wallachian Plain) and Moldova) to northeast Ukraine across the Central Black Earth Region of Central Russia, southern Russia into Siberia. The other stretches from the Canadian Prairies in Manitoba through the Great Plains of the US as far south as Kansas. Similar soil types occur in Texas and Hungary. Chernozem layer thickness may vary widely, from several centimetres up to 1.5 metres (60 inches) in Ukraine, as well as the Red River Valley region in the Northern US and Canada (an area formerly known as lake Agassiz). The terrain can also be found in small quantities elsewhere (for example, on 1% of Poland). It also exists in Northeast China, near Harbin. The only true chernozem in Australia is located around Nimmitabel, with some of the richest soils in the nation.
- https://www.quora.com/Has-anything-grown-in-Carthage-after-Rome-salted-it “Salting the earth” was an occasional and symbolic practice in antiquity in the Near East, probably not later than the Biblical period. Mentions of Carthage being plowed with salt go back no farther than the 13th century (it’s a bit ambiguous), and probably not earlier than the 19th. And even had the Romans wanted to do it, the quantity of salt necessary to hurt plant growth in the area would have been hideously expensive.

Animals
- invertebrate
- vertebrate

Prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. The word is derived from the Latin term prehendere, meaning "to grasp".Prehensility affords animals a great natural advantage in manipulating their environment for feeding, digging, and defense. It enables many animals, such as primates, to use tools to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible without highly specialized anatomy. For example, chimpanzees have the ability to use sticks to obtain termites and grubs in a manner similar to human fishing. However, not all prehensile organs are applied to tool use; the giraffe tongue, for instance, is instead used in feeding and self-cleaning.

color of animal

- melanin

• common forms

• eumelanin
• pheomelanin - responsible for brightest manifestations of melanin, including red hair and fur

• dark skinned africans have more melanin in outer layer of their skin than light skinned northern europeans. People with brown eyes have more melanin than those with hazel, green or blue. White hair contains no melanin
• melanin is a natural sunscreen, higher concentration of it naturally boost one's overall immune system. But it prevents the absorption of vitamin d

- farmed salmon and captive flamingos have doses of carotenoids added to their diets so thay their flesh and feathers stay nice and pink. (wild salmon ingest a lot of carotenoids and wild flamingos love shrimp and eat much of it)

- there are a lot of red fish in deep water, though they don't appear re until they 're brought into the light. At 30 feet below sea level, only yellow and blues are visible to animals with cones that arr able to see these colors. Go farther down, only blue is visible.

- vertebrates have no blue pigments. Blue in vertebrates result from either structural color or from the scattering that causes the sky to turn blue. The more scattering that occurs, causing us to see more blue than any other color. Sometimes there is also yellow pigmentnin front of iris and blue combines with the yellow, thus resulting in green eyes.

- when it comes to mating in animal world, the male is often more heavily and colorfully adorned to attract the female

- poison dart frogs secrete poison through their brightly colored skin. Thecmore intensely colorful the more poisonous

camouflage
- chromatophore cells allow animals to change colors rapidly
- animals- ermine, pepper moth, peacock flounder, octopus

human body
- The Eustachian tube, also known as the auditory tube or pharyngotympanic tube, is a tube that links the nasopharynx to the middle ear. It is a part of the middle ear. In adult humans the Eustachian tube is approximately 35 mm (1.4 in) long and 3 mm (0.12 in) in diameter. It is named after the sixteenth-century Italian anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi. In humans and other land animals the middle ear (like the ear canal) is normally filled with air. Unlike the open ear canal, however, the air of the middle ear is not in direct contact with the atmosphere outside the body. The Eustachian tube connects from the chamber of the middle ear to the back of the nasopharynx. Normally, the Eustachian tube is collapsed, but it gapes open both with swallowing and with positive pressure. When taking off in an airplane, the surrounding air pressure goes from higher (on the ground) to lower (in the sky). The air in the middle ear expands as the plane gains altitude, and pushes its way into the back of the nose and mouth. On the way down, the volume of air in the middle ear shrinks, and a slight vacuum is produced. Active opening of the Eustachian tube is required to equalize the pressure between the middle ear and the surrounding atmosphere as the plane descends. A diver also experiences this change in pressure, but with greater rates of pressure change; active opening of the Eustachian tube is required more frequently as the diver goes deeperinto higher pressure.耳咽管或称听管、咽鼓管、欧氏管（E－tube），是连接咽喉和中耳的管道，在解剖学上属于中耳。成人的耳咽管约3.5厘米长。耳咽管可以维持中耳和外界压强的平衡，但有时细菌也得以进入中耳，造成中耳炎。

Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. 

- 今年84歲的費梁與82歲的葉昌媛，同是中國科學院成都生物研究所兩棲爬行動物研究室研究員，從事兩棲動物研究整整60年。2016年，費梁、葉昌媛夫婦編寫的長達1,040頁、約200萬字的英文專著《Amphibians of China（中國兩棲動物）》（上卷）正式出版。今年，該書中卷已完成初稿，將向出版社交稿。夫婦二人計劃再用三四年完成該書下卷的寫作。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2021/02/05/a16-0205.pdf

reptiles
- people

• Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther FRS, also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3 October 1830 – 1 February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is currently ranked the second-most productive reptile taxonomist (after George Albert Boulenger) with more than 340 reptile species described

• one of the mentors of walter rothschild

La crinière est, chez un animal, un ensemble de poils plus longs que sur le reste du corps (sauf la queue) et qui poussent le long du cou ou de l'encolure, généralement depuis le haut du front jusqu'au garrot. Les animaux à crinière les plus connus sont le cheval, qui est domestique, et le lion. Une grande variété d'animaux portent une crinière, dont le gnou, la hyène, le zèbre, l'otarie à crinière, l'âne, la girafe, le bison, ou encore le loup à crinière. Chez les équidés, la crinière est constituée de poils appelés les crins, qui sont moins durs que ceux de la queue. La crinière peut servir à protéger l'animal des insectes grâce au mouvement qu'il lui imprime en faisant frissonner les muscles de son corps, chez le cheval par exemple. Chez le lion, elle pourrait être une forme de protection contre les coups de griffes lors de combats entre mâles rivaux, ou une protection contre le froid.たてがみ（漢字表記：鬣、騣、巤、騌、鬃、鬉、鬐、鬛、Mane、Crest）とは、動物（特に哺乳類）の頸部もしくは頭部に密集して生える長い毛のことである。代表的なものとして、ウマやライオン、ハイエナなどのものがある。時にヒトの頭髪や髭もたてがみの一種と解釈される。体温調節（保温および放熱）や、頭部・頸部の物理的保護のためにある部位と考えられている。

feather
- https://www.quora.com/If-dinosaurs-had-feathers-why-are-there-no-feathered-reptiles-today-1

A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fangs, which are part of the chelicerae.Fangs are most common in carnivores or omnivores, but some herbivores, such as fruit bats, have them as well. They are generally used to hold or swiftly kill prey, such as in large cats. Omnivorous animals, such as bears, use their fangs when hunting fish or other prey, but they are not needed for consuming fruit. Some apes also have fangs, which they use for threats and fighting. However, the relatively short canines of humans are not considered to be fangs. 

- Certain mythological and legendary creatures such as dragons, gargoyles and yakshas are commonly depicted with prominent fangs. The fangs of vampires are one of their defining characteristics.The iconographic representation of some Hindu deities include fangs, to symbolize the ability to hunt and kill. Two examples are fierce warrior goddess Chamunda and god of death Yamain some iconographic representations. Fangs are also common among guardian figures such as Verupaksha in Buddhism art in China and East Asia,^[3] as well as Rangda in Balinese Hinduism.

素嚢（そのう）A crop (sometimes also called a croup or a craw, ingluvies, or sublingual pouch) is a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion. This anatomical structure is found in a wide variety of animals. It has been found in birds, and in invertebrate animals including gastropods (snails and slugs), earthworms, leeches, and insects.Cropping is used by bees to temporarily store nectar of flowers. When bees "suck" nectar, it is stored in their crops.In a bird's digestive system, the crop is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. It is a part of the digestive tract, essentially an enlarged part of the esophagus. As with most other organisms that have a crop, it is used to temporarily store food. Not all bird species have one. In adult doves and pigeons, it can produce crop milk to feed newly hatched birds.Scavenging birds, such as vultures, will gorge themselves when prey is abundant, causing their crop to bulge. They subsequently sit, sleepy or half torpid, to digest their food.Most raptors, including hawks, eagles and vultures (as stated above), have a crop; however, owls do not. Similarly, all true quail (Old World quail and New World quail) have a crop, but buttonquail do not. While chickens and turkeys possess a crop, geese do not have one.

桑寄生植物又稱槲寄生植物Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.

Fungi
- spread of fungi may be prevented by burning all diseaesed plants; fungi that live in soil can be killed by adding lime to the soil
- yeast is a fungus that does not have hyphae; yeast ferment sugar; when bakers make bread, they put yeast into the dough, this ferment sugar in flour and carbon dioxide is formed which makes holes in dough. Dry wines are those in which all the sugar has been fermented, sweet wines contain some sugar that has not been fermented
- 靈芝屬，又稱木靈芝、神芝、芝草、仙草、瑞草Die Lackporlinge Ganoderma is a genus of polypore mushrooms that grow on wood, and include about 80 species, many from tropical regions.The name Ganoderma is derived from the Greek ganos/γανος "brightness, sheen", hence "shining" and derma/δερμα "skin".^[2] The genus Ganoderma was erected as a genus in 1881 by Karsten and included only one species, G. lucidum (Curtis) Karst . Previously, this taxon was characterized as Boletus lucidus Curtis (1781) and then Polyporus lucidus (Curtis) Fr. (1821) (Karsten 1881). The species P. lucidus was characterized by having a laccate pileus and stipe, and this is a character that Murrill suspects was the reason for Karsten’s division because only one species was included, G. lucidum .

Mould
- some moulds produce substances that will cure human diseases - penicillin (cure diseases incl septic wounds and abscesses) is obtained from one kind of penicillium

lichen [eckstut]
- half fungi and half algae
- a living example of symbiosis (alga half of partnership undergoes photosynthesis, and fungi half provides a nice home.
- rocella is the genus of lichen most commonly used for litmus test. The papers used in the test present different colors depending on the ph substance being tested. More alkaline substances result in purple and blue, more acidic substances resultvin orange or red
- lichen dyes ranging from greens to oranges can be created by boiling lichen in water. Red and purples can appear if a little ammonia is added. The purple is used as base dye to heighten effects of tyrian purple. Dyes from lichen are used  to color wools ans silks, also body paint by native americans


Bacteria
- useful

• Help in ripening of cheese and butter, tanning of leather, curing of tobacco, ed1zretting of flax, making alcoholic beverages and vinegar, disposal of sewage

- harmful

• Germs

生物鹼Alkaloids are a class of naturally occurring organic compounds that mostly contain basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, alkaloids may also contain oxygen, sulfur and, more rarely, other elements such as chlorine, bromine, and phosphorus. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial (e.g. quinine), antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), anticancer (e.g.homoharringtonine),^[6] cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine),^[8] antibacterial (e.g.chelerythrine),^[9] and antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. piperine).^[10] Many have found use in traditional or modern medicine, or as starting points for drug discovery. Other alkaloids possess psychotropic (e.g. psilocin) and stimulant activities (e.g. cocaine, caffeine, nicotine, theobromine),^[11] and have been used in entheogenic rituals or as recreational drugs. Alkaloids can be toxic too (e.g. atropine, tubocurarine). Although alkaloids act on a diversity of metabolic systems in humans and other animals, they almost uniformly evoke a bitter taste. The boundary between alkaloids and other nitrogen-containing natural compounds is not clear-cut.^[14] Compounds like amino acid peptides, proteins, nucleotides, nucleic acid, amines, and antibiotics are usually not called alkaloids.^[2] Natural compounds containing nitrogen in the exocyclic position (mescaline, serotonin, dopamine, etc.) are usually classified as amines rather than as alkaloids.^[15] Some authors, however, consider alkaloids a special case of amines.The name "alkaloids" (German: Alkaloide) was introduced in 1819 by the German chemist Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Meißner, and is derived from late Latin root alkali (which, in turn, comes from the Arabic al-qalwī – "ashes of plants") and the suffix -οειδής – "like".^{[nb 1]} However, the term came into wide use only after the publication of a review article by Oscar Jacobsen in the chemical dictionary of Albert Ladenburg in the 1880s. There is no unique method of naming alkaloids.^[21] Many individual names are formed by adding the suffix "ine" to the species or genus name.^[22] For example, atropine is isolated from the plant Atropa belladonna; strychnine is obtained from the seed of the Strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica L.).^[5] Where several alkaloids are extracted from one plant their names are often distinguished by variations in the suffix: "idine", "anine", "aline", "inine" etc. There are also at least 86 alkaloids whose names contain the root "vin" because they are extracted from vinca plants such as Vinca rosea (Catharanthus roseus); these are called vinca alkaloids.Alkaloid-containing plants have been used by humans since ancient times for therapeutic and recreational purposes. For example, medicinal plants have been known in the Mesopotamia at least around 2000 BC.^[27] The Odyssey of Homer referred to a gift given to Helen by the Egyptian queen, a drug bringing oblivion. It is believed that the gift was an opium-containing drug. A Chinese book on houseplants written in 1st–3rd centuries BC mentioned a medical use of Ephedra and opium poppies. Also, coca leaves have been used by South American Indians since ancient times. Extracts from plants containing toxic alkaloids, such as aconitine and tubocurarine, were used since antiquity for poisoning arrows. Studies of alkaloids began in the 19th century. In 1804, the German chemist Friedrich Sertürner isolated from opium a "soporific principle" (Latin: principium somniferum), which he called "morphium" in honor of Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams; in German and some other Central-European languages, this is still the name of the drug. The term "morphine", used in English and French, was given by the French physicist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. A significant contribution to the chemistry of alkaloids in the early years of its development was made by the French researchers Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, who discovered quinine (1820) and strychnine (1818). Several other alkaloids were discovered around that time, including xanthine (1817), atropine (1819), caffeine(1820), coniine (1827), nicotine (1828), colchicine (1833), sparteine (1851), and cocaine (1860).^[31] The development of the chemistry of alkaloids was accelerated by the emergence of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods in the 20th century, so that by 2008 more than 12,000 alkaloids had been identified.

- extraction

• Because of the structural diversity of alkaloids, there is no single method of their extraction from natural raw materials.^[175] Most methods exploit the property of most alkaloids to be soluble in organic solvents but not in water, and the opposite tendency of their salts. Most plants contain several alkaloids. Their mixture is extracted first and then individual alkaloids are separated. Plants are thoroughly ground before extraction.^[175][177]Most alkaloids are present in the raw plants in the form of salts of organic acids. The extracted alkaloids may remain salts or change into bases. Base extraction is achieved by processing the raw material with alkaline solutions and extracting the alkaloid bases with organic solvents, such as 1,2-dichloroethane, chloroform, diethyl ether or benzene. Then, the impurities are dissolved by weak acids; this converts alkaloid bases into salts that are washed away with water. If necessary, an aqueous solution of alkaloid salts is again made alkaline and treated with an organic solvent. The process is repeated until the desired purity is achieved. In the acidic extraction, the raw plant material is processed by a weak acidic solution (e.g., acetic acid in water, ethanol, or methanol). A base is then added to convert alkaloids to basic forms that are extracted with organic solvent (if the extraction was performed with alcohol, it is removed first, and the remainder is dissolved in water). The solution is purified as described above. Alkaloids are separated from their mixture using their different solubility in certain solvents and different reactivity with certain reagents or by distillation.

- worthy to note - ghazipur, india (used to produce opium) manufactures alkaloid (portillo's continental railway journey)
- Berberine is a quaternary ammonium salt from the protoberberine group of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids found in such plants as Berberis (e.g. Berberis vulgaris – barberry, Berberis aristata – tree turmeric, Mahonia aquifolium – Oregon-grape, Hydrastis canadensis – goldenseal, Xanthorhiza simplicissima – yellowroot, Phellodendron amurense – Amur cork tree, Coptis chinensis – Chinese goldthread, Tinospora cordifolia, Argemone mexicana – prickly poppy, and Eschscholzia californica – Californian poppy). Berberine is usually found in the roots, rhizomes, stems, and bark.^{[citation needed]} Due to berberine's strong yellow color, Berberis species were used to dye wool, leather, and wood. Wool is still dyed with berberine today in northern India. Under ultraviolet light, berberine shows a strong yellow fluorescence,^[4] so it is useful in histology for staining heparin in mast cells.小檗鹼，又稱為黃連素，是一種生物鹼，主要存在於小檗屬與黃連屬植物中。在應用上，有抗菌、止瀉、消炎等效果。Berberine was supposedly used in China as a folk medicine by Shennong around 3000 BC. This first recorded use of berberine is described in the ancient Chinese medical book The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic.

Virus
- viruses are literally "parasitic" chemicals, segments of dna (or sometimes rna) wrapped in a protein coat.  They cannot reproduce on their own, and for this reason, they are not considered alive by biologists.  They can, however, replicate within cells, using the host cell's DNA enzymes and ribosomes.  Each virus is a mixture of two chemicals: nuclei acid and protein

An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health. The criteria for invasive species has been controversial, as widely divergent perceptions exist among researchers as well as concerns with the subjectivity of the term "invasive". Several alternate usages of the term have been proposed. The term as most often used applies to introduced species (also called "non-indigenous" or "non-native") that adversely affect the habitats and bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, or ecologically. Such invasive species may be either plants or animals and may disrupt by dominating a region, wilderness areas, particular habitats, or wildland–urban interface land from loss of natural controls (such as predators or herbivores). This includes non-native invasive plant species labeled as exotic pest plants and invasive exotics growing in native plant communities. It has been used in this sense by government organizations^[4][5] as well as conservation groups such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the California Native Plant Society.^[2] The European Union defines "Invasive Alien Species" as those that are, firstly, outside their natural distribution area, and secondly, threaten biological diversity.
- 最近，一起房產業權界限糾紛過堂獲判，法官判種植日本虎杖（Japanese knotweed）的英國國營鐵路公司（Network Rail）敗訴給兩名「受害鄰居」。該判決或成重要案例。法官指，兩名遭受影響的業主，Stephen Williams和Robin Waistell經歷物業「牆身破裂」， 維修耗資「龐大」，全因不負責任的國營鐵路公司種植「對建築物極具破壞力」的日本虎杖。英國國營鐵路方面指出，並非主動種植日本虎杖，而是該種植物一旦紮根土中，長勢就一發不可收拾。據悉，日本虎杖在英國國營鐵路網絡中棲居已有50年。2013年，兩名遭受影響的業主，Stephen Williams和Robin Waistell提出索賠，官司打到去年2月才結束。國營鐵路敗訴，判決或成重要案例。日本虎杖 (Fallopia japonica)，是原產於日本的一種蓼科雜草，曾在19世紀50年代被商人作為觀賞植物，引入英國，不料蔓延成災。日本虎杖既影響英國本土植物的繁殖，也嚴重威脅到本土野生動物的生存。日本虎杖的生命力強大，枝葉茂。一經栽種，長到1米高只需一個月，最終可以長到3米。另外，日本虎杖強大的穿透能力，建築物的水泥板、磚縫根本阻止不了其生長。據說，倫敦籌辦奧運時，早在體育場動工之前，政府就花了很大力氣清除場地周圍的日本虎杖。https://www.facebook.com/singtaodailyeu/photos/a.224486677751110.1073741827.224484584417986/900922120107559/?type=3
- 美國紐約河濱公園園方近日為了表揚一群助公園清除外來入侵植物有功的山羊，特意向牠們頒發「史上最佳獎」（Great Of All Time awards，GOAT）。一隻十歲的雌性山羊奪得冠軍，牠日前出席了頒獎典禮。河濱公園的外來入侵植物，如日本虎杖、裹白樹莓、野葛、艾草及英國常春藤等，有機會破壞園內的生態環境。因此，職員推行修復林地的措施，以保護園內森林。其中一項措施是於今年春天引入二十四隻山羊，靠牠們吃掉外來入侵植物。園方又定期在網上分享這群山羊的故事，最近更舉辦投票，讓逾三千名紐約市民投票選出五隻他們認為表現得最好的山羊。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190806/00180_034.html
- https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3045774/thousands-sign-petition-calling-introduction-koalas-new  Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for koalas to be introduced to New Zealand after Australia's devastating bush fires destroyed wide stretches of the animal’s habitat. Introducing Australian species to New Zealand though has often led to unintentional results. After possums were introduced in the 1850s to establish a fur trade, the population quickly exploded into the millions and they remain a pest today. While protected in Australia as native species, the cat-sized marsupial has become New Zealand's most damaging animal pest, wreaking havoc on native forests.

- economist 26jun2021 "no more mr mice guy" australia mulls biowarfare against unwanted critters


Paleontology or palaeontology
-  https://www.quora.com/Why-weren%E2%80%99t-dinosaurs-discovered-in-Middle-Ages-or-Renaissance
- 在遼寧出土、距今一億二千五百萬至一億六千萬年前的八塊珍貴恐龍和鳥化石流失海外多年後，終在前天（13日）輾轉自歐洲回到故鄉，正式落戶遼寧古生物博物館，當日館方舉行接收儀式。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20180115/00178_025.html
- 甘肅省臨夏回族自治州永靖縣，素有「中國恐龍之鄉」之稱。縣政府周二舉行黃河化石論壇，會上披露近期在該縣關山鄉紅樓村發現巨龍形類蜥腳類和新鳥臀類恐龍化石，專家正進一步研究，確定是否屬於新屬種。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191107/00178_016.html
- usa

• Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History.^[1] He is primarily known for leading a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs to the museum.  In 1925, the museum sent a letter back informing the party that the skull was that of a mammal, and therefore even more rare and valuable; more were uncovered. Expeditions in the area stopped during 1926 and 1927. In 1928, the expedition's finds were seized by Chinese authorities but were eventually returned. The 1929 expedition was cancelled. In 1930, Andrews made one final trip and discovered some mastodon fossils. A cinematographer, James B. Shackelford, made filmed records of many of Andrews' expeditions. (Sixty years after Andrews' initial expedition, the American Museum of Natural History sent a new expedition to Mongolia on the invitation of its government to continue exploration.) Later that year, Andrews returned to the United States and divorced his wife, with whom he had two sons. He married his second wife, Wilhelmina Christmas, in 1935.

• en 1923, dans le désert de Gobi, Kan Chuen Pao, un membre de l'expédition dirigée par Andrews, découvre le crâne fossilisé d'un grand mammifère carnivore, qu'il baptise Andrewsarchus.

Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. In contrast to genetics, which refers to the study of individual genes and their roles in inheritance, genomics aims at the collective characterization and quantification of all of an organism's genes, their interrelations and influence on the organism.^[1] Genes may direct the production of proteins with the assistance of enzymes and messenger molecules. In turn, proteins make up body structures such as organs and tissues as well as control chemical reactions and carry signals between cells. Genomics also involves the sequencing and analysis of genomes through uses of high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to assemble and analyze the function and structure of entire genomes. Advances in genomics have triggered a revolution in discovery-based research and systems biology to facilitate understanding of even the most complex biological systems such as the brain.The field also includes studies of intragenomic (within the genome) phenomena such as epistasis (effect of one gene on another), pleiotropy (one gene affecting more than one trait), heterosis (hybrid vigour), and other interactions between loci and alleles within the genome.

- hk

• The Government today (May 14) announced the Strategic Development of Genomic Medicine in Hong Kong (the Strategy), a blueprint to drive the local development of genomic medicine in order to harness its huge potential in precise diagnoses, personalised treatment and surveillance of diseases.  Among the specific recommendations put forth by the Steering Committee, the $1.2 billion-budget Hong Kong Genome Project (HKGP) has been accorded the top priority. It is a large-scale genome sequencing project, with the pilot phase focusing on patients and their family members with undiagnosed disorders and hereditary cancers. Up to 40 000 to 50 000 genomes would be sequenced. The Hong Kong Genome Institute will take forward the implementation of the HKGP. Patients with informed consent will be recruited from the three partnering centres at Hong Kong Children's Hospital, Queen Mary Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital. Sequencing analysis results will be fed back to patients once available to aid diagnoses or clinical management.https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202005/14/P2020051400636.htm

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds.
- two approaches in 17th and 18th centuries:

• binomial system by linnaeus
• behaviorally based approach of buffon

- people

• Henry Seebohm (12 July 1832 – 26 November 1895) was an English steel manufacturer, and amateur ornithologist, oologist and traveller. Henry was the oldest son of Benjamin Seebohm (1798–1871) who was a wool merchant at Horton Grange, Bradford. The family had moved to England from Bad Pyrmont in Germany. Henry's mother Estther Wheeler (1798–1864) was a granddaughter of William Tuke. The Seebohms were active in the Society of Friends and Henry schooled within the community in York. He worked initially in a grocery as an assistant but moved to Sheffield where he became a steel manufacturer. He married Maria, daughter of George John Healey, a merchant in Manchester on 19 January 1859. Henry became interested in natural history at school and continued to spend his spare time studying birds on his journeys. He travelled widely visiting Greece, Scandinavia, Turkey, and South Africa. His expeditions to the Yenisey tundra of Siberia were described in his two books, Siberia in Europe (1880) and Siberia in Asia (1882), which were combined in the posthumous publication The Birds of Siberia (1901). His expeditions included the lower Pechora River in 1875 along with John Alexander Harvie-Brown as well as a visit to Heligoland at the home of Heinrich Gätke. In 1877 he joined Joseph Wiggins to Siberia. He was one of the first European ornithologists to accept the American trinomial system to classify sub-species. Seebohm's other publications included A History of British Birds (1883), The Geographical Distribution of the family Charadriidae (1887), The Birds of the Japanese Empire (1890) and A Monograph of the Turdidae (1902, completed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe).
• Bertram Evelyn (Bill) Smythies (11 July 1912 (Nainital, India) – 27 June 1999 (Redhill, England)) was a British forester and ornithologist. Smythies was born in India, to E. A. Smythies, silviculturist of Uttar Pradeshand, in the 1940s, Chief Conservator of Forest of Nepal, and his wife, Olive, well-known author of The Tiger Lady. After school in the UK, Bill read botanyand forestry at Balliol College, Oxford. Bill's grandfather came to India in 1873 to join the Indian Forest Service and served until 1902 around Dehra Dun. His father had degrees in forestry and geology from Oxford and served in the Indian Forest Service from 1908 to 1940. Wrote books on southeast asia including burma 
• Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (6 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a member of the Imperial Civil Service (later the Indian Civil Service), a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, a political party that was later to lead in the Indian independence movement. A notable ornithologist, Hume has been called "the Father of Indian Ornithology" and, by those who found him dogmatic, "the Pope of Indian ornithology." An administrator of Etawah.
• Edmund Selous (14 August 1857 – 25 March 1934) was a British ornithologist and writer. He was the younger brother of big-game hunter Frederick Selous. Born in London, the son of a wealthy stockbroker, Selous was educated privately and matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge in September 1877. He left without a degree and was admitted to the Middle Temple just over a year later and was called to the bar in 1881. He practised as a barristeronly briefly before retiring to pursue the study of natural history and literature. 
• Elizabeth Vladimirovna Kozlova (19 August 1892 – 10 February 1975) was a Russian ornithologist. From 1923–1926 she took part as the professional ornithologist in an expedition, organised by the Russian Geographical Society and led by her husband, to Mongolia. She returned to Mongolia in 1929 and 1930 to collect and to conduct further bird studies, her research resulting in the publication in 1930 of Birds of South-western Transbaikalia, Northern Mongolia and the Central Gobi.
• Boonsong Lekagul (15 December 1907 – 9 February 1992) was a Thaimedical doctor, biologist, ornithologist, herpetologist, and conservationist.

• also a language in frisian language

• Derek Almey Ratcliffe (9 July 1929 – 23 May 2005) was one of the most significant British nature conservationists of the 20th century. He was Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy Council at the Monks Wood Experimental Station, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, retiring in 1989. Ratcliffe was the author of the 1977 Nature Conservation Review, a document which set out the most important sites for nature conservation in the United Kingdom. He also published various works on nature and conservation. He was the son of a cinema pianist and a French-language teacher and grew up in Carlisle. He married Jeanette in March 1978. Ratcliffe was the first person to discover the link between the use by farmers of pesticides such as DDT and Dieldrin and the decline of British populations of birds of prey, in particular the peregrine falcon (a species on which he was a world authority). He was instrumental in persuading the UK government to end the tax advantages available for planting non-native conifer forests on Scottish peat bogs, which was threatening the internationally important large wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland known as the Flow Country.
• luis f baptista (1942-2000), a bioacoustics expert born in hk and grew up in macau but spending most of his life in united states

oology
- at annual meeting in 1922, royal society of birds warned about the distinct menace posed by egg collectors. Lord walter rothschild split off from the society and helped found the british oological association (dedicated to egg collecting, it was later renamed the jourdain society). Meetings of the association were targeted by police in 1990s.

Cabinets of curiosities (also known in German loanwords as Kunstkabinett, Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer; also Cabinets of Wonder, and wonder-rooms) were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings), and antiquities. "The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater. The Kunstkammer conveyed symbolically the patron's control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction." Of Charles I of England's collection, Peter Thomas states succinctly, "The Kunstkabinett itself was a form of propaganda" Besides the most famous, best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe formed collections that were precursors to museums. The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. The classic cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier. The Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor(ruled 1576–1612), housed in the Hradschin at Prague, was unrivalled north of the Alps; it provided a solace and retreat for contemplation that also served to demonstrate his imperial magnificence and power in symbolic arrangement of their display, ceremoniously presented to visiting diplomats and magnates. Rudolf's uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, also had a collection, with a special emphasis on paintings of people with interesting deformities, which remains largely intact as the Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle in Austria.

evolution
- https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Douglas-Axe-a-top-mathematical-biologist-say-that-Darwins-mechanism-for-evolution-is-wrong

hibernate

- animals that hibernate

• [brydon] chipmunk, frog