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| any unique property that "emerges" when component objects are joined together in constraining relations to "construct" a higher-level aggregate object, a novel property that unpredictably comes from a combination of two simpler constituents |
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| the body of inhabitants of a place |
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| an assemblage of interacting populations occupying a given area |
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| a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment. |
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| a complex biotic community characterized by distinctive plant and animal species and maintained under the climatic conditions of the region, esp. such a community that has developed to climax. |
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| the production of living organisms from other living organisms. |
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| the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts |
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| the theory that every complex phenomenon, esp. in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon. |
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| any cellular organism that has no nuclear membrane, no organelles in the cytoplasm except ribosomes, and has its genetic material in the form of single continuous strands forming coils or loops, characteristic of all organisms in the kingdom Monera, as the bacteria and blue-green algae. |
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| any organism having as its fundamental structural unit a cell type that contains specialized organelles in the cytoplasm, a membrane-bound nucleus enclosing genetic material organized into chromosomes, and an elaborate system of division by mitosis or meiosis, characteristic of all life forms except bacteria, blue-green algae, and other primitive microorganisms. |
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| the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms. |
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| change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift. |
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| the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations. |
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| a method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested. |
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| a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts. |
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| reasoning from detailed facts to general principles [syn: generalization] |
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| a group of subjects closely resembling the treatment group in many demographic variables but not receiving the active medication or factor under study and thereby serving as a comparison group when treatment results are evaluated. |
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| apt or liable to vary or change; changeable |
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| A group of subjects that are exposed to the variable of a control experiment. |
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| reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect) |
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