Homeostasis
A property of cells, tissues, and organisms that allows the maintenance and regulation of the stability and constancy needed to function properly. Homeostasis is a healthy state that is maintained by the constant adjustment of biochemical and physiological pathways. An example of homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant blood pressure in the human body through a series of fine adjustments in the normal range of function of the hormonal, neuromuscular, and cardiovascular systems. These adjustments allow the maintenance of blood pressure needed for body function despite environmental changes and changes in a person’s activity level and position. Other homeostatic mechanisms, for example, permit the maintenance of body temperature within a narrow range.
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A homeotherm is a warm-blooded animal (such as homo sapiens). Another term for us warm-blooded creatures is endotherm. Those of us who are homeotherms or endotherms are as opposed to a poikilotherm (an organism such as a frog that is cold-blooded) and a stenotherm (a creature that can only survive only within a very narrow […]
- Homicide
1. The killing of a person. 2. Strictly speaking, the killing of a man. femicide. From the Latin meaning murderer, from homo, man + caedere, to kill.
- Homo erectus
A primate believed to have been an extinct ancestor of modern humans being (Homo sapiens). Known to have been tall (average 1.78 m or 5 feet, 10 inches), erect stature, smaller brain (about 75% the size of Homo sapiens), and a lower forehead than modern humans. Homo erectus is Latin for erect or upright man.
- Homo floresiensis
A human-like species who lived until 18,000 years ago in the company of giant Komodo lizards and now-extinct pygmy elephants on the isolated island of Flores in Indonesia. Homo floresiensis was only one meter (3 feet) tall and had a brain one-third the size of that of modern humans. Nicknamed hobbits, these people lived on […]
- Homo sapiens
The primate species of mammal to which modern humans belong. Homo sapiens is Latin for knowing man or wise man.