Talk:Glossary of biology

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Scope of this glossary[edit]

What is the intended scope here? I understand drawing a line for inclusion/exclusion of terms in wp glossaries is often problematic, but this one seems to include a wealth of terms that truly just do not belong in a glossary of biology, e.g. all of the subatomic particles like quark and hadron and lepton – which are rarely, if ever, mentioned in any purely biological context – as well as most of the other physics and chemistry terms. Things like mass balance and molecular physics seem out of place unless their relevance to biology can be succinctly demonstrated within their definitions. Even though you can probably imagine somehow interpreting electron shell and valence as "fundamental" biology concepts, I think they, too, are stretching the limits of this glossary a bit. Yes, these terms are obviously fundamental to the sciences as a whole, but they are covered adequately (and in a more suitable context) in Glossary of physics and Glossary of chemistry. I think the scope of this Glossary of biology needs to be exclusively biological; that is to say, winnowed significantly to keep it concise and contextual, which is what glossaries are ideally supposed to be.

It's also important to note that Glossary of ecology, Glossary of botany, Glossary of genetics, and others cover some of the same terms mentioned here, but again in more detail and in a more germane context. I'd like to keep the definition of ecology itself and some other basic terms that you might expect a new biologist visiting this page to want to know, but things like technical plant anatomy terms and laboratory techniques restricted to use by certain disciplines are perhaps best placed in their own more-specific glossaries, with this page advertising and linking to those glossaries. I envision this particular glossary including only those terms of the utmost importance to any basic understanding of biology, of which I believe there are plenty to fill this page, and to a general awareness of the breadth of its subfields. Other thoughts? – PJsg1011 (talk) 22:25, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Who's been working on this?[edit]

It's good. Thanks. Tony (talk) 13:02, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Flashcards link[edit]

We wanted to learn all these terms in a flashcard format so we built one and made it freely available. Thought it would be helpful for anyone who wanted to learn the content of this glossary in a flashcard format like Anki to also be able to discover that they exist and have access to it from the source.

Was going to suggest it to be added in an external links section like the following but as it is linking to our own site, following the instructions of the Wikipedia guidelines, thought it would be best to leave this in the talk page for other contributors to see if it would be relevant or see if there was a better place/format to put it

Flashcard version of the Wikipedia Glossary of biology in an Anki-readable format

Darigov Research (talk) 19:50, 7 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]