Preface
The reader should be warned that, unlike conventional dictionaries, this work does not intend to be comprehensive. Although it provides accurate definitions of specialized terminology, in this case from the field of biology, that is not the sole or final goal of this effort. The list of terms is far from exhaustive and does not broadly cover biological vocabulary. The reader will notice that the entries have been curated to reflect a series of phenomena characteristic of the living world. The main criterion for inclusion was the poetic potential inherent in each phenomenon—“po-etic” deriving from the Greek poiein, meaning “to create” or “to produce,” the root of the word poetry—as this dictionary was the work of an artist. Such an unexpected origin for a dictionary, however, should not raise suspicion but, if anything, spark curiosity, since the entries were chosen to expand and dislocate interpretation. From the scientist readers, I ask for understanding, for although I deal with jargon here, pragmatism was not quite the compass guiding my effort. From the artist readers, I ask for imagination, for the living world is poetic by essence.
Eduardo Padilha
São Paulo, 2024
Published by Fathomers, 2026
Los Angeles, CA
ISBN: 979-8-218-79988-5
/ˈæm-bər/ | (am·ber)
Fossilized resin, commonly used for jewelry- and ornament-making. The protective resin is exuded from tree bark in response to threats such as insects and fungi, filling gaps in the bark, hardening and sealing it. Organic in composition and inorganic in appearance, these vegetable secretions sit at the boundary between living and inanimate worlds. Time capsules, they imprison and preserve witnesses of older times.
Amber
/ˌæp.əpˈtoʊ.sɪs/ | (ap·o·pto·sis)
Apoptosis, from the Greek apo, “away” or “off,” and ptosis, “fall,” is programmed cell death. In circumstances where the amount of aggression or damage is so great as to compromise the processes normally performed by a cell, the cell can initiate a precise and organized series of biochemical events that culminate in its death. This death, however, is triggered in a way that causes the least possible damage to the surrounding tissue. As a result, apoptosis is commonly referred to as a “clean” and “organized” death. It is the choreography of death danced to no music.
Apoptosis
/ˌɔː.toʊˈfæ.dʒi/ | (au·toph·a·gy)
A cellular mechanism employed to degrade cytoplasmic proteins and organelles, recycling cellular components for homeostasis, survival, and the production of energy and metabolic precursors. This ubiquitous process is also involved in the control of cell growth, aging, and death, and is characterized by an elongation of the cell membrane in order to sequester cytoplasmic material in a structure called autophagosome, from the Greek for “self-eating body.”
Autophagy
/ˌɔː.təˈpɔɪ.iː.sɪs/ | (au·to·poi·e·sis)
From the Greek auto, “self,” and poiein, “to make,” as in “poetry.” In What Is Life? (1995), biologist Lynn Margulis and writer Dorion Sagan define autopoiesis as “life’s continuous production of itself. Autopoietic behavior, characteristic of all living matter, refers to the chemical activities (metabolism) of identifiable organic beings as they self-maintain.”
Autopoiesis
/ˈkæn.sər/ | (can·cer)
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of cells. These cells lose their biological identity, cease to function like their tissue of origin, and acquire the ability to invade other tissues of the organism. Commonly associated with imminent death, cancer is ironically an excess of life, given that malignant cells no longer respond to growth-suppression stimuli and can reproduce ceaselessly. Thus cancer reflects a paradox of life and death, a blow to the dichotomy between self and nonself.
Cancer
/dɛθ/ | (death)
The opposing force to life. Biologically, death is the irreversible failure of vital functions that sustain an organism, marking the end of life. In the history of medicine, death was a condition less obvious than initially believed, making it a challenge to declare a human truly dead.
Death
/ˌdiː.kəm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/ | (de·com·po·si·tion)
The action of decaying or causing something to decay, breaking something into its constituent parts. For living bodies, the process of decomposition begins after death, when vital forces no longer operate to construct and maintain structures, leaving them subject to dismantling and disintegration.
Decomposition
/ˌdɪf.ə.ˌrɛn.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/ | (dif·fer·en·ti·a·tion)
The process through which cells from the same source produce cell groups with different morphological structures and functional characteristics. By means of differentiation a cell reaches its specialized and mature phenotype, losing developmental potential. There is a price to be paid for the specific functional capabilities acquired; this price is forfeiting stemness. Thus differentiation suggests a suspension between potentiality and action.
Differentiation
/ˌɛf.ə.roʊ.saɪˈtoʊ.sɪs/ | (ef·fe·ro·cy·to·sis)
The process that mediates the removal of apoptotic cells by phagocytic cells. This anti-inflammatory process removes billions of apoptotic cells in the human body daily and is crucial for maintaining homeostasis.
Efferocytosis
/ˌfɛr.oʊpˈtoʊ.sɪs/ | (fer·rop·to·sis)
Originally defined as cell death that can be activated by small molecules such as erastin, ferroptosis is mediated by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation. It differs morphologically from apoptosis and necrosis and does not involve the cellular machinery that mediates apoptosis or necroptosis.
Ferroptosis
/hɪˌmæt.oʊ.pɔɪˈiː.sɪs/ | (he·ma·to·poi·e·sis)
The process through which the body produces blood cells. It takes place in the hematopoietic system, a self-renewal system comprising organs and tissues involved in blood production. All the cellular components of the blood are derived from hematopoietic stem cells.
Hematopoiesis
/ˌhoʊ.mi.oʊˈsteɪ.sɪs/ | (ho·meo·sta·sis)
Homeostasis, from the Greek, hómoios, “similar,” and stásis, “standing,” describes the ability of living organisms to maintain internal balance and stability in response to changes in the external environment. This dynamic equilibrium, conserved despite fluctuations and oscillations, is seen as one of the defining aspects of what we call “life,” an indispensable attribute of living beings. “Standing similar” refers above all to the being itself, its sustainment of internal metabolism and processes despite the vicissitudes of the exterior world. Homeostasis hinges on the balance of discrete entities.
Homeostasis
/ˌɪm.jʊ.noʊ.səˈprɛʃ.ən/ | (im·mu·no·sup·pres·sion)
The suppression of the immune system and its capacities, whether intentional or not. Immunosuppression may be induced by drugs, for example, in preparation for bone marrow or organ transplantation, in an attempt to prevent rejection of the donor tissue. In this case, it is a strategy to suppress the mechanisms of the immunological self, depleting the organism’s guard against the “other,” the nonself.
Immunosuppression
/ˌɪn.fləˈmeɪ.ʃən/ | (in·flam·ma·tion)
A biological response of the immune system to harmful stimuli (e.g., pathogens, damaged cells, irritants) characterized by the key signs of pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function. Inflammation is a protective mechanism that, when dysregulated, may contribute to the pathophysiology of many diseases. It is usually referred to as “inflammatory response,” as if to imply that the organism or tissue is being interrogated, challenged. Cells may undergo apoptosis—a “clean” death that does not trigger inflammation— in order to avoid such interrogation and trial.
Inflammation
/məˈtæb.əˌlɪz.əm/ | (me·tab·o·lism)
From the Greek metabolē, meaning “change” or “transformation,” metabolism is the entirety of biochemical reactions taking place within living organisms: the changes of molecules carried out by enzymes, involving the production and consumption of energy and macromolecules and the elimination of toxic wastes. The permanence of life rests on the impermanence of nonliving entities.
Metabolism
/ˌmɛt.əˈstæ.sɪs/ | (me·tas·ta·sis)
The spread of malignant cells from the primary tumor site to distant parts of the body. The cells acquire the capacity to invade surrounding tissues and travel through the bloodstream or lymphatic system, originating secondary tumors in different organs or tissues.
Metastasis
/maɪˈtoʊ.sɪs/ | (mi·to·sis)
The tightly regulated biological process through which a cell divides into two daughter cells. Mitosis includes the division of both the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm, with the resulting cells genetically identical to the parental one. This poietic process is at the root of the generation and maintenance of the organic structures necessary to life. It is a means of transcending the limitations of unity by becoming many.
Mitosis
/mjuˈteɪ.ʃən/ | (mu·ta·tion)
A change in the nucleotide sequence that makes up the DNA strand, leading to genetic variation. A mutation may result from different causes, such as radiation, chemicals, or spontaneous mistakes during DNA replication, and its implications range from completely harmless to potentially fatal.
Mutation
/nɪˈkrɒp.toʊ.sɪs/ | (ne·crop·to·sis)
Necroptosis, a necrotic programmed cell death pathway, was the first discovered programmed cell death mechanism to mediate necrosis. It can be promoted by the activation of death receptors by their cognate ligands in cells under apoptosis- deficient conditions.
Necroptosis
/nɛˈkroʊ.sɪs/ | (ne·cro·sis)
A form of cell death triggered by an acute insult, in which the cell undergoes unregulated digestion of its internal components. This process elicits inflammation and affects neighboring cells—a critical difference between necrosis and apoptosis. Present in different human pathologies, this dramatic way of dying involves the swelling of the cytoplasm and the disruption of the cell membrane, a conspicuous implosion that releases the cellular contents into the intercellular milieu.
Necrosis
/ˌfæɡ.oʊ.saɪˈtoʊ.sɪs/ | (pha·go·cy·to·sis)
The engulfment and digestion of entities (e.g., particles or another cell) by an individual cell. Phagocytosis is a fundamental activity for host defense against pathogens and cleanup of dead or damaged cells and debris.
Phagocytosis
/paɪˈrɒp.toʊ.sɪs/ | (py·rop·to·sis)
A type of programmed necrotic cell death regulated by dedicated genetic pathways in mammalian cells. Pyroptosis is a lytic and inflammatory type of death that involves cell swelling, membrane perforation, and the release of cell contents.
Pyroptosis
/sɪˈkriː.ʃən/ | (se·cre·tion)
A vital biological process by which cells segregate, elaborate, and release some substance, such as saliva or urine. Secretion enables cells to communicate, transport nutrients, and eliminate waste products.
Secretion
/ˌsɛm.iˌpɜr.mi.əˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/ | (semi·per·me·abil·i·ty)
Semipermeability refers to the characteristic of a material or membrane that allows certain molecules or ions to pass through it while blocking others. This selective permeability serves an important role in various biological and chemical processes. For example, cell membranes are semipermeable, permitting essential nutrients to enter the cell while keeping harmful substances out. The semipermeable nature of these membranes is crucial for maintaining homeostasis within the cell.
Semipermeability
/trænˈskrɪp.ʃən/ | (tran·scrip·tion)
The process by which the “text” of the genes, stored in the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule placed in the cell nucleus, is transcribed into another species of nucleic acid, ribonucleic acid (RNA), a messenger that can reach the cell’s cytoplasm and be used for translation into proteins.
Transcription
/ˌtræn.sfərˈmeɪ.ʃən/ | (trans·for·ma·tion)
In cell biology, transformation refers to the transition of a normal cell into a malignant, tumorigenic state. It involves loss of homeostasis, mainly loss of control over cell reproduction and proliferation. A “transformed” cell is not necessarily a fully malignant cancer cell, highlighting the gradient between normal and pathological—a continuum rather than poles in a binary system.
Transformation
/trænˈsleɪ.ʃən/ | (trans·la·tion)
The process of synthesizing proteins from messenger RNA by translating the language of RNA (an alphabet composed of nucleotides) into the language of proteins (an alphabet composed of amino acids). This “univocal correspondence between . . . alphabets,” in the words of biologist François Jacob, is a central process in molecular biology and, most importantly, a semiotic occurrence, ensuring the flow of information and the perpetuation of being(s).