
German physical chemist Uwe Meierhenrich on Russian-born Israeli molecular bio-physicist (chnops-physicist) Edward Trifonov’s 2011 meta-analysis list of 123-definitions of life list (Popa list + Barbieri list), non-redundant, and the overtypical recursive definition formula found in attempts to define life: as objects having biological processes; biology defined as the study of life. [11]

In science, biology is a defunct scientific term (see: defunct theory of life), formerly defined as the study of that which is "alive" or "living systems", derived from the Greek prefix bio-, meaning "life".

Terminology reform

See main: Life terminology upgrades

The term "biology" has been superseded and replaced by a work-in-progress variety of upgrade terms: "chnopsology", the study of animate systems, the study of "medium powered CHNOPS+ regions, systems, or matrices" (Henry Swan, 1974), among other yet to be invented scientifically agreeable replacements.

Etymology
The prefix bio- is the combining form of the Greek term bios. [12]

The word “bios”, itself, supposedly embodying the Greek idea or concept of life or theory of life, according to German philosopher Georg Misch, first appears in the work of Euripides, a top seven thinker in Aristotle's citation rankings. [13]

The coining of the term “biology” arose independently in the works of about five or so different people in the years 1797 to 1802 in England and Germany.

In 1797, German anatomist and physiologist Theodore Roose (1771-1803), in his 1797 book Outlines of the Theory of Life Force, designated by the term “biology” the doctrine of study of the “life force” (a vitalism term). [3]

In 1799, English physician Thomas Beddoes used the term biology, as a type of strict subset term of physiology, as follows: [10]

“Biology: the doctrine of the living system in all its states.”

In 1800, German physiologist and neuroanatomist Karl Burdach (1776-1847) used the term “biology” to denote the study of morphology, physiology, and psychology. [6]

In 1802, German physician and naturalist Gottfried Treviranus (1776-1837) employed the term in the title of his book Biology or Philosophy of Living Nature for Naturalists and Physicians, in the introduction of which he wrote (see translation note): [7]

“The objects of our investigation will be the various forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which held the state of life and the causes, whereby the same is effected. The science that deals with these things, we will designate by the name of biology or the science of life.” “Die Gegenstände unserer Nachforschungen werden die verschiedenen Formen und Erscheinungen des Lebens sein, die Bedingungen und Gesetze unter welchen der Lebenszustand stattfindet und die Ursachen, wodurch derselbe bewirkt wird. Die Wissenschaft, die sich mit diesen Gegenständen beschäftigt, werden wir mit dem Namen Biologie oder Lebenslehre bezeichnen.”

“The objects of our investigation will be the various forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which held the state of life and the causes, whereby the same is effected. The science that deals with these things, we will designate by the name of biology or the science of life.”	“Die Gegenstände unserer Nachforschungen werden die verschiedenen Formen und Erscheinungen des Lebens sein, die Bedingungen und Gesetze unter welchen der Lebenszustand stattfindet und die Ursachen, wodurch derselbe bewirkt wird. Die Wissenschaft, die sich mit diesen Gegenständen beschäftigt, werden wir mit dem Namen Biologie oder Lebenslehre bezeichnen.”

Catherine Rigby (2004), misattributes Treviranus, in 1802, as using the term biology for the first time as a new branch of science defined as “conditions and laws under which the different forms of life exist and their causes.”

In 1802, French naturalist Jean Lamarck, in his Researches on the Organization of Living Bodies, used the term biology, supposedly, in the sense of the study of “the unitary force over all species from the rudimentary worm to the splendor of man.” [8] Lamarck’s full definition reads: [9]

“Biology: this is one of the three divisions of terrestrial physics; it includes all which pertains to living bodies and particularly to their organization, where developmental processes, the structural complexity resulting from prolonged action of vital movements, the tendency to create special organs and to isolate them by focusing activity in a center, and so on.”

(add discussion)

Overview
The term "biology" itself is circular, with the Greek prefix rendered in English, the word amounts to: “life-ology is the study of life”, and hence is a meaningless term. This shows through in the various so-called “coinings” of the term (above).

In the modern view, however, animated matter, otherwise known as "biological matter", in obsolete terminology, is atomic matter, and atoms are not alive, nor are molecules, animate molecules, or animated molecules with atomic turnover rate, otherwise known as metabolism and growth. [1]

The goal of what was called the so-called subject of "biology", in olden-days terminology, according to the 1966 views of English molecular biologist Francis Crick, is reductionism to a purely atomic physical chemistry description of behavior: “The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry.” [2]

Upgrade terminology
The suggested replacement terminology for the now defunct term biology include: "chnopsology" (2012) and or "animateology", the study of animate matter (or animate molecules); which are both Hmolpedia coined terms, the latter modeled on:

(a) Belgian-born English thermodynamicist Alfred Ubbelohde 1954 definition that “animate matter [is] termed ‘life’ for short.”
(b) Swedish physical chemist Sture Nordholm 1997 use of "animate thermodynamics" as the study of the thermodynamics of human activity and behavior.

In this sense, animateology would comprise the study of animate thermodynamics, animate chemistry, and or animate physics applied to the study of animated structures, generally super-cellular in size, or thereabouts. Animateology, to note, is less focused, in that it could generally mean the study of everything that animates, including simple mechanical automatons.

Thermodynamics
In thermodynamics, terms that still have a certain usage include: biothermodynamics, biological thermodynamics, biochemical thermodynamics, etc., although each is in need of terminological upgrade. [4]

Chemistry
In a cultural sense, there is said to exist a certain “biology of love”, that has recently been described by a unified theory of psychology and brain chemistry. [5]

References
1. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (life: difficulties on term, pgs. 130-31). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Brooks, Michael. (2008). 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: the Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time (ch. 5: “Life: Are You More Than Just a Bag of Chemicals”, pgs. 69-82). Double Day.
(c) Thims, Libb. (2009). “Letter: Life a Defunct Scientific Theory”, Journal of Human Thermodynamics, Vol. 5, pgs. 20-21.
2. Crick, Francis. (1966). Of Molecules and Men (abs). University of Washington Press.
3. (a) Roose, Theodore. (1797). Outlines of the Theory of Life Force (Grundzüge von der Lehre von der Lebenskraft). Braunschweig.
(b) Sydow, Momme von. (2012). From Darwinian Metaphysics towards Understanding the Evolution of Evolution Mechanisms (pg. 88). Gottingen University.
4. (a) Biochemical thermodynamics – 1994 IUBMB-IUPAC Recommendations for Nomenclature.
(b) Alberty, Robert A. (2006). Biochemical Thermodynamics: Applications of Mathematica (Methods of Biochemical Analysis), Wiley-Interscience.
5. Janov, Arthur. (2000). The Biology of Love. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
6. (a) Burdach, Karl F. (1800). Introduction to the Study of Whole Healing (Propadeutik zum Studium der gesammten Heilkunst) (pg. 62). Publisher.
(b) Lutz, Peter L. (2002). The Rise of Experimental Biology: and Illustrated History (pg. 144).
(c) Friedrich Burdach (German → English) – Wikipedia.
(d) Sydow, Momme von. (2012). From Darwinian Metaphysics towards Understanding the Evolution of Evolution Mechanisms (pg. 88). Gottingen University.
7. (a) Treviranus, Gottfried. (1802). Biology or Philosophy of Living Nature for Naturalists and Physicians (Biologie oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur für Naturforscher und Ärzte). Gottingen.
(b) Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (German → English) – Wikipedia.
(c) Note: The term "Lebenslehre" is a somewhat indirect term to render, which translates either as "life lesson" (Google), "theory of life" (Google), or "science of life" (Coleman, 1971).
8. (a) Lamarck, J.B. (1802). Researches on the Organization of Living Bodies (recherches sur l’organisation des corps vivans) (pg. 202). Paris.
(b) Honeywill, Ross. (2008). Lamarck’s Evolution: Two Centuries of Genius and Jealously (pg. #). Pier.
9. Coleman, William. (1971). Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation (pg. 2). Cambridge University Press.
10. Beddoes, Thomas. (1799). Contributions to Physical and Medical Knowledge (pg. 4). Biggs & Coggle.
11. (a) Meierhenrich, Uwe J. (2012). “Life in its Uniqueness Remains Difficult to Define in Scientific Terms” (pdf), Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, 29(4):641-42.
(b) Life (Wikipedia) on 13 Jun 2009:

(c) Uwe Meierhenrich – Wikipedia.
12. Bio- | Online Etymology Dictionary.
13. (a) Misch, Georg. (1950). A History of Autobiography in Antiquity, Part 1 (pg. 62). Psychology Press.
(b) Georg Misch – Wikipedia.
14. Rigby, Catherine. (2004). (Goethe: Bildungstrieb, pgs. 25-26, 36; Elective Affinities, pg. 196). University of Virginia Press.

External links
● Biology – Wikipedia.